Hatred Falls
by Foxmerc
Summary: When a biological containment failure ravages a Venomian research base, Wolf O’Donnell finds himself at the bottom of the overrun facility. Now, he must cooperate and fight to the surface with the most unlikely ally...Fox McCloud. Important note update
1. Paths of Fate

[Author's Note: All StarFox characters are (c) Nintendo, Dr. Enghusen is mine. Thank you to all who have supported me in making this story! Thanks for reading and enjoy!   
This story is lovingly dedicated to Aimee, my sun in day and my moon at night. Foxmerc]   
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Hatred Falls**

  
  
  


By, Foxmerc   
  
  
  
  


CHAPTER 1   
Paths of Fate   
_Fourteen months after Andross' fall_   
_Zoness, abandoned military base_   
_1403 hours_   


The things I do for cash. A year ago, I had it all…money, fame, and the ability to make Cornerians piss their damn pants at the sound of my name. I laughed at the army's pitiful attempts at the beginning of the Lylat War; they were schoolgirls compared to my skill. Soon I lost count of how many I killed on Venom's unstoppable wave of destruction across the galaxy. The heft of cash in my pocket and the warmth of blood on my hands…what more could a mercenary ask for?   
But that was all stopped when McCloud and his little sissy band entered the fight. One lucky win after another, and in the blink of an eye, it was all over. Now, I'm reduced to this…hiding below the toxic waters of Zoness in an "abandoned" base, being paid a wage that would make a janitor cringe, and overseeing the latest in last-ditch efforts of Venom's remaining army. I couldn't take it anymore…if I had to spend one more damn week breathing stale air and dealing with these moronic soldiers not fit to guard a sewer hole, I'd snap.   
"Uh…excuse me…Mr. O'Donnell…Sir?"   
Speaking of the morons…I slowly swiveled my chair around, my head resting low on my hand, and let the poor bastard know with my good eye that I didn't like his interruption. It brightened my mood a little to see his frightened expression and the attempts at steadying his voice. It wasn't surprising, though…who wouldn't be intimidated at seeing me? Even just sitting there, unmoving, in a simple attire of gray camouflage pants, black boots, and a plain black t-shirt, I had the power to reduce this soldier to a spineless wimp…not that there was much spine to begin with. He stood there, quaking, waiting for me to respond.   
"What do you want?" I finally replied in a low, patronizing tone. I already knew what he was there for, but seeing him sweat was just too much fun to pass up…certainly more fun than reminiscing about McCloud.   
"Th-The experiments have reached their final phase. You requested t-to be informed when the time came, s-Sir."   
I continued to glare at him from the corner of the room, half-bathed in darkness. He stood at strict attention, his stare straight forward, though he kept stealing nervous glances at me. Finally, after I thought he would pass out right there on my floor, I waved him away. If you looked up relief in a dictionary, the lizard's expression as he quickly left would be illustrated.   
With a heavy groan I stood up and walked from my small, plain, dimly-lit room into even more plain, dimly-lit corridor. The base wasn't exactly in prime shape when the army secretly reopened it for the experiments. Every day I expected the junk heap to just implode in on itself, end of story. But, like I said, money was scarce, and I'd handled worse before. Besides, I had the added bonus of pushing wimps like that lizard around and seeing these experiments…while they probably won't work in the end, it was still quite a fun show to watch what happened to our test subjects.   
Still, I think Leon and Pigma got the better deal. We decided to do two jobs at once for more money, and all they had to do was baby-sit a convoy of freighters. It was no more boring than this, and they might actually see some action while not cooped up in a huge metal box under an ocean. The only thing Leon had to complain about was having to deal with that stupid, fat ass. If only Pigma would take Andrew's example and leave StarWolf…can't say I was exactly sad to see him leave. Overjoyed is more like it.   
After five minutes of walking through the redundant, creaking, rusty, dark corridors, I came to a clean, newly-installed security door that seemed very out of place with the regular motif. I swiped my card and it slid open with a nerve-gratingly high-pitched ding. Inside was the Playground, as I called it, the only room in the base that anywhere near resembled something high-tech. It was a huge room, about the size of a gymnasium, with rows of computer consoles and other stuff that I didn't know what the hell was for. Each side wall was made of heavily reinforced transparent polymerized resin. Behind each large window was a bare space slightly smaller than the control room…that's where the real fun happened.   
Though a few bored-looking guards wandered the room, most of the activity came from scientists in those white lab coats, always busy with something. They were much harder to intimidate, and believe me I've tried, mostly because they're smarter and they know they're not expendable. Most of them were cold and heartless, the two traits needed for a project like this, and I actually admired that to some extent. Seeing their work in action was definitely enjoyable, anyway.   
I scanned the room until I saw the lead scientist by the left window, writing something on a clipboard. Dr. Enghusen was a light gray coyote, slightly older than me, a genius in the biological field, and not too bad looking…I'd take her in bed in a second if I could, do my own biology research. But she was the stern, no-nonsense type, and hearing her talk about her work gave me a headache. So, instead, I just played the commander and she played the scientist.   
I moseyed on over to her, my arms folded, and peeked at what she was writing. It was the normal science crap that made me dizzy, so I looked away and said, "I was told your new pet's ready. What kind of show do I get to see today?"   
The doctor glanced up at me over the rim of her glasses, like a big sister to an annoying little brother. Anybody else who gave me that look would find themselves chained in a pit with toxic water slowly eating away at their flesh…but not the top scientist. But just as I knew she wasn't expendable, she knew not to push me too far…there are times when my anger doesn't follow rules and orders, and heaven help whoever's in my way when that happens, regardless of status.   
"Yes, O'Donnell, we have an experiment today," she finally replied in a hurried tone. "As much as I know how you love watching them, I'd appreciate a little respect for what we do here."   
"I'll give it respect when it actually works," I mumbled back. So far, all the experiments might as well have been shows; none worked, only killed the test subject. "What does this one do?"   
She lightly sighed and spoke rapidly while continuing the scrawl on her clipboard. "The gas is called E3. It's a hormonal inhibitor endorphin that binds to opiate receptors in the brain, coupled with a simulated adrenal—"   
"Spare me, Doctor. I asked what it does, not for your med school exam thesis."   
"E3 stand for 'Enhanced strength, Enhanced agility, and Enhanced resilience"," Enghusen continued with a slight scowl. Another simple joy of life in the rusty metal base: pissing the geeks off. "It gives the subject the strength of two heavyweight fighters, the agility of the most skilled infiltrator, and resistance to pain as if his flesh was practically made of anesthetic...the ultimate all-around soldier. Was that clear enough for you, O'Donnell?"   
It was my turn to scowl…sometimes, the bitch just pissed me off. I gently put my hand on her shoulder, as a friend would to comfort another, and she immediately tensed up. She knew full well that sometimes she went too far with me, and that I wasn't the most forgiving person in the galaxy. I slowly slid my hand until it was caressing the back of her neck, and I squeezed…not hard enough to seriously hurt the poor girl, but enough so she felt her pressure points under attack. To her credit, she didn't try anything, not even a dirty look…just stared straight ahead with a grimace.   
"In case you haven't noticed," I whispered harshly into her ear. "I don't exactly love being here. The sooner you finish this, the sooner I get paid and leave, do you understand? And if you can't make that happen, I can find someone who can, which makes you officially expendable. So if you don't want to find yourself on the other side of that glass, breathing in your own disfiguring projects, I suggest you cut the crap and make it work."   
The coyote nodded slowly, still staring ahead. I smiled as I felt her heart pounding through her back. She knew damn well I meant every word of it, and the thought of being used as a test subject for these projects was enough to scare anyone. As a little touch to remind her that she was still under me, I gave her a quick little kiss on the side of her muzzle, and my grin widened as she flinched away.   
"Now get to work," I said and roughly released my grasp. Her chest rising and falling from heavy breathing, Enghusen gently massaged her neck then got back to her rapid writing on the clipboard, her eyes stealing nervous glances in my direction every now and then. Believe me, when you make it so that people nervously glance at you but wouldn't dare look at you, you have a gift.   
I took a few steps backwards and leaned on one of the blinking consoles, waiting for the geeks to get their experiment going. After a few minutes, an old black jaguar in a white lab coat strode over to Enghusen, and they started talking. The test was apparently ready to begin. Enghusen nodded once to the jaguar then hurriedly walked over to the intercom system on the wall. Talk in the room died down as her voice emitted from the speakers.   
"Attention all lab personnel, E3 experiment number twenty-seven-A is about to commence in the west chamber. All key factor controllers to your stations, all others stand by for observation." She switched the intercom back off and jogged to the huddle of scientists forming near the center of the left window, looking eagerly into the chamber. Other white-clad scientists took positions at various consoles. A grin began working its way onto my muzzle…let the fun begin.   
I moved closer to the group of scientists to get a better view of the action. A collective hush fell over the room as the thick metal door on the side of the chamber opened just long enough for the test subject to be shoved in. Today's victim was a disheveled-looking raccoon in a torn Cornerian Army uniform. The Venom Army was fortunate enough to get the drop on a division of 150 Cornerian soldiers on Macbeth a month before, and a hundred of the captured soldiers were shipped to the Zoness base as test subjects. A few of the pitiful ones have died from the lacking conditions, a larger chunk from the experiments, but over sixty still remained to have fun with.   
The weakling stumbled and fell to his hands and knees on the cold metal floor of the chamber. Immediately, he jumped up and started looking around wildly. Upon seeing the eager eyes of the scientists through the window, he flattened himself against the back wall, his chest heaving. It was a pitiful sight, really…no wonder the gutless wimps had surrendered in the first place.   
Enghusen waved her hand briefly in the air, the signal to let it rip. One of the techies at the consoles typed for a few seconds, and a series of vents opened in the chamber's ceiling. I grinned as a stream of light green gas was blown into the room, sealing the prisoner's fate. The raccoon, horrified at the cloud, crouched down and covered himself, like that would stop the gas…idiot. Soon the room was filled with the green vapors, making it impossible to see what was going on. As planned, microphones in the chamber were turned on so we could hear the reaction, and fans began purging the room of the gas. I label what happened next as the official beginning of this whole nightmare.   
As the gas was sucked from the room, I saw the raccoon lying in a fetal position on the floor, writhing slightly. I'd seen it before; soon he would puke his guts out or go into convulsions, or start bleeding from his eye sockets or something. That was how all the other experiments ended. The only thing wrong was that he wasn't…he was just lying there, twitching. A pained moaning could be heard from the speakers. A few scientists, disappointed, turned and start walking away from the window, mumbling. I was pretty damn disappointed too.   
That's when the shit hit the fan.   
An ear-piercing scream erupted from the speakers, scaring the hell out of everyone in the room, and even startling me. Everyone looked back at the tank and saw the raccoon hop to his feet, clutching his head with an expression of agony of his face. The scream continued as the soldier fell to his knees, his arms wrapped around his torso. Every eye in the control room was glued to the prisoner as he…what's the word…evolved.   
The first thing that told us that either something was horribly wrong, or something was finally right, was the raccoon's flesh. I was reminded of water boiling when I saw it…his gray-furred skin boiled and bubbled, expanding in great lumps. After a minute or so of his deafening screams of pain and his skin bubbling and stretching, he threw his head back, or what was left of it, and screamed one last time. He then fell silent as the back of his head exploded, spraying the metal wall with a splash of blood. It was turning out to be a better show than I thought.   
By this time, his shirt was ripped off by the rapidly expanding and bubbling skin. All but tiny, random tufts of his fur had fallen out, and the shapeless blob that used to be his head had seemed to stop expanding. For that matter, it seemed his entire transformation was complete. The end product was definitely not what the damn scientists had intended. It was a living nightmare. Quite a few of the scientists turned away from their creation in disgust and lost their lunches right there on the floor. I came close a few times, but I'm not that weak.   
"Fascinating…" Enghusen breathed, her eyes wide as she stared at the monster. "Absolutely amazing."   
The thing now stood on two legs, giving me a good look at it. The image that came immediately to mind was that someone had taken the raccoon, shaved him, and made him swallow a million rocks. His bare upper body was a huge mess of lumps and bubbled skin, his arms suffering from the same effect…only the fingers on his left arm seemed to have grown much longer, almost being tendrils. His head was as shapeless as the rest of him, with tiny slits for eyes and a black hole for a mouth, randomly ringed with teeth. I was starting to see why he had screamed so much.   
"Vital signs are way above normal!" one of the techies called in a quaking voice from the consoles. "All experiment factors seem to have taken effect."   
Regaining her usual stone expression, Enghusen checked some notes on her clipboard and nodded. "Well, the physical form is not what we intended, but the project has succeeded. Send in the second subject."   
I grinned slightly…this was part I was really waiting for. I moved forward and stood next to Enghusen, wanting a front row seat. I had to hand it to her…she was unflinching through the whole thing, much more so than those other meek scientists. She continued her cold stare into the chamber, waiting for the next phase of the experiment.   
It came with a new torrent of screams, but this time from a young Cornerian Army prisoner who was shoved into the chamber, just like the raccoon was. It was a female, surprising me for some reason, a pretty leopard who looked as disheveled as the other prisoners. When she was pushed into the chamber, her eyes immediately fell on the monstrosity in the center. Her facial expression was classic…I wish I took a picture.   
"Please, no! Let me out! _No!_" she screamed desperately, clawing at the door. The bulbous monster slowly turned, as if sniffing the air, and saw her. The leopard flattened herself against the wall, tears streaming down her cheeks, and whimpered as the thing took a few shambling steps forward. At first I thought it would just shamble the whole way, disproving all the enhanced this and improved that crap. But after a few steps it broke into an almost blindingly fast leap, flying across the chamber and right in front of the girl. With a final, cut-off scream all became silent except for the unique sounds of tearing flesh and spilling blood. The monster swiped at her, over and over again, roaring a low guttural noise. Blood effectively painted the walls and the window around them, and torn bits of flesh and cloth accompanied by severed body parts were strewn about the chamber.   
The experiment ended. The scientists busily wrote down whatever it is scientists write down after these things, and I officially gave the spectacle two thumbs up. Looking at the destroyed bodies, I couldn't help but chuckle. I bet they weren't expecting this when they enlisted.   
"Fascinating," Enghusen kept repeating as she distractedly walked by me. I had to agree with her…I'd never seen anything like that thing, and fascinating was a good word for it. I personally couldn't wait for the next experiment. Of course, I should've heeded the advice on being careful what you wish for. The next experiment would come soon enough…and any fascination I had left would be replaced by sheer horror.   
  
  


* * *   
  
  
  


_Fourteen months after Andross' fall_   
_Great Fox_   
_1537 hours_   
  
  
  


The things I do for money. During my fifteen minutes of fame after the Lylat War, I thought I had it made…money, fame, and the ability to make those damn Venomians piss their pants at the sound of my name. Even after the war, we still had jobs rolling in to help eradicate the remaining army cells, and to liberate quite a few towns and base's from the die-hard Venom soldiers. I felt that I was really making a difference in those times. The heft of cash in my pocket and the satisfaction of helping the free universe…what more could a mercenary ask for?   
But that all ended soon enough. As life moved on and the war took back burner to current events, StarFox was again a simple mercenary team…and jobs those days were few and far between. Simple repairs to the Great Fox soon became an issue as our bank account shrunk, and we came close to selling an Arwing or two a few times. If it hadn't been for the huge payment for the war, we would've already found ourselves stocking shelves in a corner store. I guess it was the extreme need for money that got me wrapped up in this mess to begin with.   
It was a year or so after the war, and we had just completed one of these elusive jobs that landed another fairly large chunk onto the end of our account balance. It had been quite a while since we last took a vacation…since just after the war, actually, and we were all exhausted. We needed a break from the incessant creaking of the ship and the same plain, metal corridors we woke up to every morning. Most of all, we needed a break from boredom and worrying when the next check that buys the food would come in. Well, nobody can call me a party-pooper…we took the vacation.   
Well, almost. My office, or what I frequently referred to as my "study" in a jokingly snotty voice, held a bit of paperwork that needed finishing before I could even think of going anywhere. It was actually, in my opinion, the most relaxing room in the ship, and I put quite a bit of effort into furnishing it. The walls were transformed from their gray metal with ornate, colorful wallpaper, and the floor was covered with an equally colorful, deep rug. It was just the kind I like to go barefoot in, getting a free massage to dull the pains of paperwork. The lighting was dimmed, instead of the harsh fluorescent, just enough to light up whatever happened to be lying on the wooden desk in the center. Add all that to the amazingly soft chair that I sometimes used just to doze off in, and you have quite a nice setup.   
I was actually in the middle of a nice doze when Peppy Hare knocked on the door and came in, startling me awake.   
"I thought you were finishing those bills," he said with a slight grin, closing the door behind him. I chuckled as he seemed to lose even more of height, sinking into the rich rug.   
"I was," I replied, stretching my arms over my head with a groan. "Got to thinking of old times and nodded off…you know me and this chair."   
"I know…it's amazing you get any work done at all. Well are you almost done? We're leaving tonight, you know."   
I rested my elbow on the chair's arm and cradled my head wearily. I was looking forward to this vacation so much…a rich old friend of Peppy's had a really nice vacation house in a resort town on Macbeth and agreed to loan it to us for a couple weeks. Just what we needed…sun, palm trees, beaches, relaxation, and hardly any money spent. Even my beloved study couldn't compare. But…   
"I can't," I moaned with disappointment, eyeing the stack of papers that still stood inches high. "There's too much left, I'll never get it done before tonight."   
A mirrored look of disappointment swept across my friend's face, but he nodded. To this day, I consider myself amazingly lucky to wind up with the teammates I have, always supportive. "I understand, it's ok. Don't kill yourself doing it, we can leave tomorrow."   
I was about to nod and thank him when an idea popped into my head…a very fateful idea. "Why don't you all go on ahead? I can finish up here and fly down there tomorrow."   
Peppy's face brightened and I smiled. There was no reason to keep them all there for a few signatures and checks to write out. Do the work, get a good night's sleep, pack the swimsuit, and head down in the morning…couldn't be simpler.   
"Thanks, Fox," Peppy said, relief showing in his face. "But what about you? You going to be ok alone up here alone?"   
"I'll survive somehow," I replied with a grin. "Besides, having the place to myself is close enough to a vacation."   
I laughed as Peppy rolled his eyes and stood up. "Well, I'll let you get back to work. I'll stop by to say goodbye when we leave."   
I nodded and waved as he left, then looked back down at the white stack with a sigh. It stared right back up at me, mocking me, dozens of bills and forms about this and that and everything else that ate up money, time, or both. Figures…I finally get some down time and leadership duties get in the way. So goes the life of Fox McCloud.   


It was just before midnight when I stumbled wearily from my office, my writing hand cramped and my eyelids heavy. The team was already long gone, the Great Fox blanketed in silence. But it was done…the evil pile of paper was taken care of. Now, time to grab a quick bite for my rumbling stomach, go to bed, then two weeks of relaxation. It was almost too good to be true.   
I poked my head into the refrigerator in the galley and perused our meager food supply. No shopping had been done recently in anticipation of the weeks away, so I settled for a cheese sandwich and a can of soda. Since I hadn't eaten anything since that morning, it tasted as fine as a seven-course meal at a five-star restaurant just then. I polished the sandwich off then took a seat at the soft white sofa in the rec room to stretch and drink from the can. I had just leaned my head back and closed my eyes when the phone rang. I had a bad feeling from the start…   
Who the hell would be calling that late? I figured it must be the guys, checking in or something. I lazily slapped the comm. on my head and groaned without opening my eyes, "ROB, who is that?"   
"General Pepper on line one, Sir. Should I tell him to get lost?"   
I laughed out loud…damn literal robot. After I had received an annoying call earlier in the day, I muttered that if anyone else called, they can get lost. Pepper would just love that. Living with ROB was a good comic relief sometimes, if not always efficient.   
"That's ok, ROB, I'll take it in here."   
With a good bit of effort, I opened my eyes and shuffled over to the screen on the wall. I hit the receive button and Pepper's saggy face showed, looking just like how I felt.   
"Hello, Fox. Sorry to call so late, did I wake you up?"   
"Nah, just grabbing a midnight snack. What are you doing up so late?" I could see that he was still in uniform, and the background was that of his office. His eyes looked even droopier than usual.   
"Something's come up, and I've been here forever trying to find someone to take care of it. I know you're going on vacation, but—"   
I held my hands up to stop him and shook my head. "Uh-uh, no way, that's right, I'm going on vacation. No jobs, no chores, no assignments, no missions, and dammit, no papers. I'd be gone already if it wasn't for the eighty pounds of bills lying in my office."   
"Fox, please, hear me out," Pepper said, a hint of desperation in his voice. The poor guy was exhausted, I could tell that. But the thing that clinched it was his next sentence. "I can pay you double the normal rates for this one."   
My eyes widened. He must really be desperate…interrupting me on my vacation and willing to pay double. It sure made me more inclined to listen, so I gave him my attention. "Alright, I'll listen, but I'm not promising."   
"Fair enough," Pepper continued, clearing his throat. "It's nothing too intricate, just a simple recon mission. A scout on Zoness has reported Venomian craft landing at an abandoned base on a small island. They could be rogues wandering the islands, stripping the place for scrap metal, or they could be actual army, we don't know. No activity has been present for the last few days, so we deemed it a favorable risk to send in the scout who had reported the sightings. He failed to report in. We have no other standing forces in the immediate are; you're the closest."   
"Let me get this straight," I interrupted. I couldn't believe what I was hearing; it was like I was asleep already and dreaming. "You want me to go alone into what could be a fully-functional base where you've already lost a scout?"   
"I don't want you to run in, shoot it up, and destroy it. All I need to know is whether there is in fact a presence at the base, or whether the scout just ran into an accident. Literally, land peek your head in, see if the lights are on, and get out."   
That sounded a little better. "And for this, how much? Recons usually pay twenty-five thousand, so fifty?"   
Pepper nodded. I looked down and thought as hard as my tired brain would let me. We were desperate for money and the general was desperate for a scout…seemed to all work nicely. Sure, lying on the beach would be a lot more enjoyable than sauntering into what could be a Venomian base, but it didn't seem like too bad a risk…at least not a risk to throw away much-needed money over. So I'd be a day late for the vacation, so what? I'm sure the guys would agree with me that a day late and fifty-thousand credits richer was a good deal.   
"Alright, deal. I'll leave in the morning."   
"Great, thanks Fox. I'll send you the coordinates. Good luck."   
After the screen was switched off, I smiled wide. Wait 'till the team hears about this one…fifty-thousand was a huge payment, and for such an easy job? Another thing for the day that seemed too good to be true. As I headed off to bed, already planning the countless things the money could be used for, I had no idea what would truly await me at that base. Being in my profession means risks, and taking risks were necessary to pay the bills…but any relief I felt at getting the job would soon be replaced by sheer horror.   
  
  


_-Chapter 2 coming soon-_   



	2. Hell Broken Loose

  
[Author's Note: Not much to say, here's Chapter 2, enjoy! =) As always, feedback is appreciated! --Foxmerc]   
  


CHAPTER 2   
Hell Broken Loose   
_The next day_   
_Zoness research base_   
_1123 hours_   
  
  
  


The day of the E3 experiment was probably the most enjoyable one I had during my time in that shithole of a base. The test itself was a blast; no one had seen anything like it before, and it sure beat just seeing the subjects twitch and puke. But the real fun came later, during the cleanup process.   
A laser turret was installed in the roof of the chambers for just this kind of experiment. The techies turned it on, and the scientists counted how many hits it took to take the freak down…it was a lot, something like seventeen. The scientists were excited at the whole thing, of course, and ran off to their offices to do their thing, leaving me to oversee cleanup…which I didn't mind at all.   
I entered the chamber with a few grunts and looked at the mess. The entire left side of the chamber was dripping with blood, flesh, and fur. No part of the leopard was recognizable, save for an arm here or a finger there. I grinned at the sight and laughed scornfully as one of the grunts threw up by the door. Damn weaklings…no wonder the Venom army was where it was.   
I looked down at the perforated monster, then crouched for a closer examination. It was just as it looked from outside; a furless, bulbous, mess. Hesitating for only a second, I reached out and touched the skin. I thought it would push down, like a fleshy bubble, but it was rock-hard, like the skin was covering lumps of metal. Its arms and elongated fingers were the same way…they were more like razor-sharp claws now than tendrils. Tearing the leopard apart must have been as easy as opening a birthday present.   
"Sir?" one of my soldiers said, his voice unsteady. I could see he was pretty close to puking also. "Should we, uh...continue?"   
"Oh, quit your whining," I snarled at him. "Show some backbone for once."   
I stood up and decided to get it done with before the wimps fainted…but I had a little fun planned. The incinerator we used to destroy subjects after they died was in the basement, a bit away from the cell block where the prisoners were kept. I ordered two of them to drag the monstrous corpse right down the hallway between the cells, giving the Cornerians a very good look. It was great, some of the facial expressions I saw through the bars rivaled that last look on the leopard's pretty face before it was torn off.   
Speaking of the leopard, she had a place in our little parade as well, though there wasn't much left to drag out. Another of my assistants dragged the bloody pile of torn flesh and limbs right behind the monster, and it was obvious that they knew who it was; the girl probably made a big scene when she was taken from the cells. Most of the Cornerians turned away, but a few threw themselves at the bars, yelling and cursing at me. I loved that reaction…but they would get theirs soon enough.   
After that was some good ole' R and R. I kicked back in my quarters and thought about the events of the day, chuckling again at some of the highlights. When a guard informed me later that night that there would be another test the next day at noon, I couldn't be happier. I even let the soldier go without screwing with him.   
  


I had a grin on my muzzle for just about the entire morning the next day. We were getting closer…soon I'd have my money and I'd be able to leave that damn can. It was a good thought to think about as I walked down to the Playground…but an even better idea to mull over crept into my head. What would we do with the remaining prisoners if the experiment succeeded today? Oh, I had many fun ideas…I was so engrossed that I almost missed the door to the test chambers.   
The Playground was even more hectic than usual. The success of the previous day, with the end in sight, was just as much a motivator for the scientists as it was for me. As I glanced over the active figures in white coats, something in the left test chamber caught my eye. The test subject was already inside, and apparently the geeks wanted to switch genders this time. It was a gray vixen, from what I could tell, in the same Cornerian Army attire. She sat in the far corner, hugging her knees to her chest, her head bowed. Knowing what her body would soon look like, I almost felt a pang of sympathy…almost.   
Enghusen was talking rapidly to a few scientists over by the console, pointing to the cowering vixen. I moseyed on over to the good doctor, trying to hear what she was saying, but I couldn't keep up with the speedy geek language. When she was finally done, the coyote turned back to the chamber and her tail brushed me, startling her.   
"Oh, it's you," she muttered, looking back down at her clipboard. "I was wondering where you were...knew you wouldn't miss this."   
"Of course not," I said with a grin, my eyes roving down her loose blouse. Maybe I'd miss it to get a good look at those. "After yesterday, you raised my curiosity."   
"Well, entertainment aside, we've made steady progress. This gas is the same as yesterday, the only difference being that we're testing it on a female now. You can expect a similar reaction."   
"Good," I said, glancing again at the vixen. "Let's get it going."   
I took my usual position leaning against the back row of consoles and watched the scientists scurry around, making preparations. The vixen never moved in her glass-and-metal cage, except to glance up with wet eyes a few times, then look back down. I stared at her the whole time, an odd feeling coming over me. One time, when she glanced up, she looked right into my eye. For a split second, I felt something that I thought I had left far behind…then nothing.   
It was all forgotten as Enghusen raised her hand, signaling the gas. I grinned in anticipation as the deadly cloud swept through and filled the room, covering the quivering body of the still-sitting vixen. Moments later, when the vents cleared the room, she wasn't sitting still any more. Another scream of pure agony echoed through the Playground, though this time the scientists and I were ready for it. Her skin boiled, her fur disappeared, and the familiar lumps crept their way onto her body. The back of her head exploded, just like the male, which ended the screams. I watched in fascination, being able to enjoy it this time without the surprise of the last time.   
This…is when the _real_ shit hit the fan.   
The end result looked and acted exactly like the male…but the final, fateful test had to be done. As before, the other side's door slid open and a new victim was shoved in, this time a male hare. His expression…let's just say I can never get tired of seeing expressions like that. But then…then something went wrong.   
The vents in the roof of the chamber opened once again and green gas flooded the room. The huddle of scientists looked back at the techie working the console, their eyes wide with alarm. The poor bastard manning the console, a young-looking cheetah, was slamming the console frantically.   
"They just opened!" he shouted in panic. "I can't close the vents! It's malfunctioning!"   
The gas reached the hare and another ear-splitting scream resounded. Enghusen, being the sweet lady she is, walked quickly over, shoved the cheetah out of the way, and worked on the console. Her expression became more and more desperate and beads of sweat formed on her brow. She apparently wasn't making any more headway. Finally, the coyote shouted angrily, "Stand clear!" and hit the button to lower the turret.   
My disappointment at not being able to see the hare decorate half the chamber lasted only a second. By this time, the hare had fully transformed, and the two monsters were looking at each other, and out the window at the retreating scientists. When the turret was lowered, it immediately began firing at the first monstrosity, causing it to flail and roar in pain. But the other creature looked at the turret…then did the deed that officially sent the base to hell. It leapt up to the ceiling, latched its deformed limbs onto the gun, and, with a loud roar, ripped it from its mount.   
My eye widened at this, and I felt a pang of panic. Wouldn't it be just my luck to go all this time in this goddamn base and then die in it. All fell silent in the room, save for the sizzling sound of sparks from the gun's mount. No one had any idea what to do…even Enghusen looked frightened, staring back through the thick gas at her creations. Finally, as the scientists near the window slowly backtracked, the monsters decided to end the standoff.   
Their rock-hard, disfigured limbs came down on the glass, over and over, their harrowing roars echoing through the chamber. The screams of the scientists mingled with them as all hell broke loose, mass panic, everyone running around in frenzied horror. The creatures continued beating on the glass, the impacts a hellish bass drum resounding in my head. A spider web of cracks started to show in the thick resin, small wisps of gas leaking through. I figured it was time to get the hell out of there.   
I ran for the door, shoving panicked scientists out of my way, and bolted through just as I heard a loud crash. As I roughly slid the door shut behind me, sealing the leak in, I caught a glimpse of a rain of glass shards as the window finally fell. The gas billowed through the room, enveloping the crowd, their combined screams abruptly cut off as the door slammed home.   
I stumbled backwards, staring at the door, my eye wide. Those goddamn stupid fucking scientists…couldn't they keep their crap working? But that was it…they were all dead. Well, that's not true; they were still alive…in some form. With that thought lingering on the edge of my mind, my first order of business was to grab a gas mask from an emergency box on the wall and put it on. Through the sound of my heavy, recycled breathing, I could vaguely hear the echoes of screams and crashes. I decided to book.   
The hangar was topside, and the only way up from the submerged base a single freight elevator, a few corridors away. I ran for it, leaving the damn geeks at the mercy of their doing. It's their fault; let THEM die for it, not me. With any luck, I could just fly out of there and let the army deal with the mess.   
However, I didn't get very far. As I rounded a corner, the base harshly quaked with the force of an explosion, throwing me off my feet. Cursing, I stood back up, only to be thrown by another explosion. This time, I didn't get back up. I remembered seeing a section of the ceiling break away, and a severed pipe falling towards me. Then darkness.   
  
  


* * *   
  
  


_Outside the Zoness research base_   
_1223 hours_   
  
  


The dark, sickening waters of Zoness stretched endlessly in all directions, a small island before me looking even smaller compared to the expanse. Of course, you could either call it a small island or an amazingly huge base. The gray, corroded metal box that sat atop the island took up almost every inch of land, and it was hundreds of meters long and wide. It also looked serene, but most things do from a mile above.   
I took my Arwing down and closer to the base, wary as always for any anti-air. As I rounded the structure, I saw a horizontal rectangular hole in one side, the hangar. Squinting through the darkness inside, I also saw that it was empty. Whatever force had occupied the building was long gone. Probably just some bored scout making Pepper all jumpy.   
Oh, yeah, the scout. Sighing as I remembered the conditions of the job, I flew back around and headed for the roof…I didn't trust the old structure enough to go inside the hangar. So all I had to do was peek inside, see if there was any activity, and "try to find the scout"…which meant that if something was up and he wasn't within five feet of the door, I was bugging out. The more I thought about what could be down there, the stupider I felt for taking the job.   
I touched down on the grimy roof without anti-air blowing my dumb ass out to sea…so far so good. As the Arwing's canopy hummed open, I was greeted with the pleasant potpourri of raw sewage and whatever the hell consisted of Zoness water, made worse by the heat and humidity. Crinkling my nose, I hopped out onto the dirty metal and took a look around. All clear except for the single round access hatch, spitting distance away.   
I jogged over, the rancid smell making the thought of entering the base a bit more likeable, and pulled the heavy cover back with a grunt. I crouched beside the hole and looked down into darkness, the only light coming from a flicker at the bottom of the long tunnel. Whatever it was, it meant that someone was home to turn the lights on.   
"Shit…" I muttered to myself, staring down the black hole. Someone was in there, but the hangar was empty and no boats were around…didn't make sense. I rubbed under my muzzle, staring and thinking, trying not to breathe in too much. Finally, I stood and walked back towards my ship. Screw it…something was definitely wrong, and I didn't feel like dying on my vacation time. My part of the job was done.   
But, of course, fate had other plans.   
As I neared my ship, I felt a sharp vibration and the building beneath me began to rumble. I thought the whole place was going down as I staggered and nearly fell over. The vibration became more and more intense, and I grabbed the hull of my Arwing to steady myself. Then, with a deafening metal clang, it all stopped as suddenly as it began. The clang was followed by a tornado-like whooshing, and the next thing I knew, I was surrounded by a green gas. It billowed outwards from the sides of the building, probably from vents, and shot upwards, disappearing in the blue sky. After a few seconds, all was calm again.   
I still held on to my Arwing, looking with a cocked eyebrow at the hatch. What the hell had just happened? What was that shit coming from the base? Biggest question…who vented it and why? I would think now that those were the questions that drove me. I always had a pretty free curiosity, and it surprisingly didn't lead me into trouble all that often. This time, however, caused enough trouble to make up for all my lucky times.   
Just a peek, that's all, just climb down there and take a glance around. With any luck, I'd come across that scout and he could fill me in. Might as well give Pepper some kind of result for the cash he put on the table. What could go wrong if I just climbed down the ladder and took a quick little look? Really, what could go wrong?   
How I could ever be that dumb, I don't know. You'd think seeing green gas that's probably anything but natural come shooting out of a known Venom base would be reason enough to leave, not to go in. But my curiosity got the better of me and I started down the ladder into the base, the sound of my boots on the rungs echoing as loud as gunshots.   
When I hit the floor, I immediately took out my pistol and held it ready, scanning the corridor I had dropped into. The abandonment was evident immediately by the rusty walls and floor and the lack of furnishings. The flickering overhead light caused a weird strobe effect that immediately gave me a headache and cured me of ever wanting to go to a nightclub again. From what I could see, though, there was nothing odd about the interior of the base…but that was no reason to let my guard down.   
I slowly moved through the winding corridors, trying to be as quiet as possible, the barrel of my gun taking point. Eventually the flickering light gave way to normal light, though it was still dim enough to make me squint a bit. If I didn't almost trip over a piece of debris on the ground, I would've missed the map on the wall that I put my hand on to steady myself. I brushed the blanket of dust off it, and it revealed a side-view of the facility. My jaw dropped.   
The black line that indicated the waterline was on the upper part of the map. Below it was indicated a single shaft that ran down a few hundred yards, a cargo elevator according to the map, and ended with a huge box built into the island, almost touching the ocean floor. This other half of the base, while equal in length and width to the upper, had around twenty floors. The building I was in, which now paled in comparison, was only three. I didn't like some names of the rooms down there either, highlighted like a map to some demented theme park: Cell Block, Research Labs, Test Chambers, Gas Processing…fun for the whole family.   
I folded my arms over my chest and absently tapped the pistol on my arm, looking at the map and thinking. If that scout was anywhere, he was either dead or in one of the cells. The cargo elevator went through all the floors until the bottom one, which housed the test chambers and the cell block. If I rode down there and bypassed all the other levels, looking for the scout should be a cinch. The dim light and shadows would make sneaking around easy, should there be any soldiers.   
With that goal in mind, I memorized the short distance to the cargo elevator and continued. The same dim, grimy corridors lay before me until I reached it, and still no living thing to be seen, dead or alive. The only sounds I heard on my journey were my own breathing and the light click of my boots on the metal floor. No more vibrations, no more gas, no screams, no voices, no waiting room music…as the saying goes, the silence was deafening.   
I finally reached the huge elevator, which was only a large platform used to transport mass amounts of heavy objects between the floors. The control panel on the platform was lit up, and after a few minutes of perusing the buttons, looking for the one to take me to the cell block, I decided on the one marked "Test Chambers/Cell Block"…and they say mercs aren't smart! Well, then again, the fact that I was even down there is a point for them.   
With a grinding quake, the heavy, rusted gears got to work and the platform began to lower, its deafening rumble announcing to the whole base, "Here I come!" I crouched to one knee and readied my gun, just in case a wary soldier decided to give me a warm welcome. However, after a couple minutes, I didn't have to worry about that.   
The first thing that alerted me that something was wrong was an eardrum-shattering screech of metal on metal. I grimaced at the harsh sound, but soon realized I had bigger problems. The platform stopped suddenly. I waited for a second, my breathing echoing through the long shaft, then slowly walked over to the console. A red emergency light was blinking, signaling that the elevator was stopped…no shit, thanks for telling me. So, of course, I did the only thing a normal guy who knows nothing about elevators could do; I kicked the console and repeatedly pressed the button for the ground floor.   
I froze in mid-kick when another groan resounded through the shaft, this time followed by the platform rumbling. I put my foot down and backed away from the console, like I was trying to apologize or something. Suddenly, the platform fell and violently stopped a few feet down, continuing its rumble. I took the hint…last stop, everybody off.   
I frantically looked around and saw an emergency ladder built into the shaft's wall. Well, this qualified as an emergency. Holstering my gun, I sprinted for the ladder and jumped just as the platform took another violent plunge…and this time, it didn't stop. I caught a rung on the ladder with one hand and dangled until I could find my footing. Looking down, all I could see was emptiness as the shaft ended in darkness a bit further down. I waited, panting, for almost ten seconds before I heard the deafening crash as the platform's remains slammed into the bottom.   
"Dammit!" I shouted into the echoing emptiness, hitting the wall with my fist. My heart pounded in my chest as I hung onto the rusty, peeling ladder and looked around the shaft. Whatever genius that installed the emergency ladder had the bright idea to put it on the wall opposite the elevator exits, and it was a good fifty feet across the shaft. But if I climbed back up to the top floor, there must be a way across. I started climbing up.   
As it turned out, I never made it to the top to see if my theory was right. After a few minutes of trudging up the grimy ladder, I reached my hand for the next rung and only grabbed air. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the ladder ended abruptly in a twist of rusty, warped metal. The age apparently had an effect, and part of it rusted and fell away, leaving a gap in the ladder. I couldn't see the other end.   
There was no way up.   
I stared in desperation at the bare wall where the ladder was supposed to continue. It seemed like a nightmare, or some sick joke, like I would wake up at any second and be lying on the beach on Macbeth, instead of hanging from a rusty ladder in an elevator shaft in an abandoned Venom base on Zoness. But there I was, cut off with no way up. But that was impossible…there's no way an entire research facility would depend upon a single elevator as its only means of entry and exit. I had to go down.   
I suddenly felt really hot, whether it was from the base temperature or the extreme workout I was getting climbing the ladder. After wiping the sweat from my forehead, I carefully took my jacket off, one arm at a time, and let it flutter down the shaft. What the hell, I could always pick it up when I got down there. After a few minutes of rest, I started back down the ladder.   
The ten minute trip down was thankfully uneventful, except for the sound of my breathing and the rhythmic tempo of my boots on the rungs. Finally, with a sigh of relief, I looked down and saw the mangled remains of the platform, my jacket resting in the center. I hopped off the ladder, my legs nearly buckling as I adjusted to solid ground again, and retrieved my jacket. As I put it back on, I looked out the large smashed-in door to the loading bay. It was about triple the size of the platform itself and held a few stacks of unmarked boxes. The rest of it was empty, no guards or surprise parties for me.   
I scanned the room until I saw a door at the far end, still intact and closed. A sign next to it read, "Sub-level 20, Test Chambers/Cell Block." With a deep breath, I brought my pistol up and headed for the door. One way or another, I'd find out very soon whether I could leave the base.   
  
  


**_--Chapter 3 coming soon--_**   
  



	3. Worlds Collide

  
[Author's Note: In the midst of chaos, the enemies meet. Thanks for reading and enjoy! =) --Foxmerc]   
  
  
CHAPTER 3   
Worlds Collide   
_Zoness Facility_   
_1211 hours_   
  
  


At first I thought I had gone blind in my other eye. As I slowly opened it, immediately feeling the pain in my head throbbing like hell's own base drum, all I could see was green. I sat up and waved my hand in front of my face, frantically trying to see something, anything. If I really had gone blind right there, I knew I would've put my gun to my head and ended it. Fortunately, it didn't come to that. As my hand waved in front of me, I could see its silhouette waving away the green in wafts. My heart almost stopped as I realized I was surrounded by E3 gas.   
The thick shit was all around me; I couldn't see more than three inches in front of my muzzle. I slowly stood up and felt around like some retarded moron until I found the wall and leaned on it. As I stood there to give my aching head some time to dull down, I began to think about the situation I was in. I remembered the major fuck-up in the Playground that set the first two things loose, then I ran over here and got knocked out. How long had I been out? I had no idea. Obviously long enough for things to go from bad to worse.   
The monsters…thinking of the accident in the test chambers made me realize something else. The gas had spread through the room from the shattered glass. And if this entire corridor was filled, that means the entire gas reserves must have been released…and there was plenty of it to fill the entire base, via the ventilation system and the cargo elevator shaft. Suddenly, my throbbing head was assaulted with images of the test subjects being ripped to shreds, of the normal soldiers being mutated, their skin boiling, the lumps forming. How many could there be? Sixty prisoners left, plus at least thirty scientists, plus over a hundred Venom soldiers…I decided to stop my math count there. Around two-hundred of those things…and they could be anywhere.   
My heart pounded as I flattened my back against the wall and frantically looked around the green fog. The sound of my breathing in the mask became heavier and faster, and I snarled through it. For the first time in a long time, I was the position of the victim, and it pissed me off. There I was, shaking like one of those goddamn pussy new recruits, and all because those damn scientists couldn't keep their shit under control. It's a good thing they were all dead already…or I'd tear apart the first one I saw myself.   
When the rage subsided and my vision turned from red back to green, my heart was beating fast now with a very unfamiliar emotion to me…fear. My mind raced, trying to figure out what to do next, but the thought train was constantly derailed by the knowledge that they could be anywhere…one of those damn things could be two feet in front of me and it would be having my head for lunch before I even knew. Not to mention the sheer tenseness of having the gas all around me…one little stumble, one little shake to bring the mask slightly askew, and I would become the same show that I was laughing at hours before.   
Keeping my thoughts focused, I finally decided on my next move. I had to clear my vision, and that meant purging the facility. The controls to do that, I remembered with a grimace, were back in the Playground. With any shred of luck, these things were just as blind as I was and I'd be able to do it undetected. With a deep breath, and my back still flat on the wall, I began back towards the test chambers.   
Things already went wrong after two damn steps. My foot landed on the same fucking pipe that knocked me out, and this time the little bastard almost sent me sprawling. I recovered quickly and was about to frustratingly boot the pipe, but I remembered that my pistol was back in my room. Instead I picked up the metal rod and held it firmly in my right hand, ready to give the first thing I saw a home-run swing to the head. After what I saw in the test chamber, though, it would be like fencing with a toothpick.   
I took one slow step after another, feeling my way from memory back to the Playground. Every once in a while, I jumped and stood dead still as a hissing sound pierced the silence. Any second, one of those long, sharp, rock-solid arms could fly through the mist and take my head off, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. With that pleasant thought in my head, I would stand, breathing heavily, until the hissing subsided, then force my legs to continue sliding down the corridor, convincing myself it was just a leaky pipe. By some miracle, I finally made it to the Playground with no encounters.   
Through the mist I could see that the door was open a foot or so, which was odd because it had an auto lock…it had to be either fully open or fully closed. As I neared the door, my foot nudged against something hard, probably more debris. Upon closer inspection, though, I found it to be part of what was blocking the door…and it was no debris.   
As I felt the object I kicked to see if it could be used as a better weapon than the pipe, my hand closed around something mostly solid, but soft and wet in an area. I brought it through the fog to my face for a better look and fell back on my ass with a gasp, dropping it as my eye stared back into another eye. After I got my heart beating again, I slowly retrieved it and took a better look.   
It was a cougar's head…or what used to be a head anyway. Blood dripped from its open neck as I held it by the right ear…the left ear was gone along with a good chunk of the entire left side of the head. His single eye was forever frozen in a wide look of fear. My stomach turned slightly as I realized it was the exposed gray matter that I first felt. I swallowed then scoffed and dropped the head to the floor with a wet thunk.   
It didn't take me long to see that the object stuck in the door was the cougar's body. A pool of blood stretched for a few feet before I actually saw the open neck, with the rest of the body half out and half in the door. It looked like he tried to wedge his way out and one of the monsters pulled on his head, maybe taking a sample taste first. I roughly kicked the body out of the way and pushed the door all the way open.   
As I expected, I couldn't see shit in the Playground, but it was just as silent as the corridors. I was counting on the monsters not wanting to hang around, and it sounded like they agreed…but I took it nice and slow anyway. I knew the console that controlled the gas was the third one down the row, so I walked forward and groped through the mist for the first one. I found it the hard way, by banging my knee into it. After thoroughly cursing it to hell and rubbing my knee, I felt my way along the console until I reached the end, then stretched my arm out to try and feel the second one.   
I felt the cold metal of the second console and shuffled over. As I felt my way along this one, my hand grazed a strange lump on the console controls. As I felt it further, I could make out five soft appendages, and it finally clicked…I recoiled back as I realized it was a hand. To my surprise, the hand came with me as I stepped back. I held it up to my face and saw the gray-furred wrist end in raggedy flesh strands and an unclean break in the bone. Gray fur…out of nowhere, I wondered if it was Enghusen.   
I tossed the hand over my shoulder in disgust, like it was a bad apple I had bitten, and stepped back to the console. I must've been closer than I thought, because yet again I banged my fucking knee. In my weary mind, I couldn't help but think of a laugh track playing over and over. After giving that console its fair share of damnation, with a punch to teach it a lesson, I eased over and grabbed the third one. No nasty surprises this time and I kept my knees far away.   
Putting my face as close to the controls as possible, I could barely make out the buttons and commands. After a few minutes of scanning, I finally found a round red button labeled "Toxin Purge," with a disclaimer under it warning that all vents and doorways should be kept clear for personnel safety. I really didn't give a shit if they were…I pushed the button.   
At first nothing happened and I was ready to give myself up for dead. But then I heard a low humming, like a generator starting up, and then a loud ratchet as the vents opened. It felt like I was in the middle of a small tornado, the gas swirling around me up into the ceiling vents. The same thing I knew, hopefully, would be happening everywhere else in the base, sucking the green crap out and blasting it to the surface. And too bad for any poor bastards within a hundred yards up there.   
Fortunately, the purge didn't reveal a gang of monsters who were grateful at having their vision cleared. It did, however, uncover a pretty amusing scene…the shit-for-brains scientists that started this whole mess. It looked like something out of a horror flick…the floor and most of the walls were practically painted with blood. There weren't any bodies, no no no… there were bits and pieces of bodies strewn all over, carpeting the red floor, not a single corpse fully intact. Through the scraps of white cloth and furry flesh, a dozen or so faces looked up at me, their unseeing eyes boring into me, their muzzles open in an eternal screams.   
I glared at the macabre blanket of death and spit at it…bastards. One thing bothered me, though…there weren't nearly enough of them. Though it was pretty hard, I estimated that there were only about fifteen total dead in the room…and there were over double that to begin with at the experiment. The gas must've turned the rest.   
Clearing my vision was an improvement, but not enough…now I'd only be able to see them coming before I was killed, unless they were more immune to steel pipes than lasers. With that thought, I contemplated making a stop by the armory, but it was in the opposite direction from the elevator. This luck streak couldn't last, I'd probably run into one on the way there. Decided…elevator it was.   
Now that I could see the corridors on the way back, it was obvious that there was fighting. Blood, but still no bodies, and laser blast scars on the walls. Actually, I did run into a body, but to my surprise it was one of the freaks, laser wounds stitched down his lumpy middle. One of the wimps actually got one…will wonders never cease.   
Further towards the elevator, the corridor started to return to its normal natural crappiness, no blood or laser marks. Maybe they all went down the other end. As I took a deep breath to let out the tension, I realized I still had my gas mask on. I started to get nervous as I pulled it off, thoughts of whether it lingered or stuck to the walls or any of that crap beating at my head. Finally, I told myself to shut the hell up and pulled it off, taking in a deep breath of semi-clean air. It felt better to have my peripheral vision back and not to hear my own damn lungs in my ears at every breath.   
I continued forward, glad about the unmarred corridor. But just as I let my guard down, I was rewarded by a deafening crash of screeching metal from down the corridor. Frozen in my tracks, I stared in the direction of the noise…exactly where the cargo elevator would be. Fearing what I would find, I started forward again, staying wary…something caused that noise.   
I knew it was too easy to be true. Whatever shred of hope I had left abandoned me with a frustrated punch to the wall as I opened the door to the cargo elevator's loading bay. The heap of mangled, rusty metal told the story…the piece-of-crap platform had fallen, probably from the age and the force of the explosions that released the gas to begin with. But who cares why…the fact remains that I was staring at the shattered pieces of the only way out.   
I didn't know what to do…it seemed that was it. But as I turned and shuffled back towards the door, I heard something else coming from the open shaft…a soft fluttering sound. I spun around in time to see something thin and white float and land softly on the rubble, draping over the metal beams. Squinting and making out the details, I saw arms and a collar…a jacket. Was someone up there?   
I jogged back to the shaft and clambered up the pile of rubble, staring up into the darkness. I couldn't see anyone, but I could barely make out a faint rhythmic tapping…someone climbing the ladder? That was impossible…the entire upper base was unoccupied, and even if it wasn't, they'd all be dead from the gas going up the shaft. Scratching my ear in thought, I decided against calling up to the mystery climber. Instead I took a closer look at the jacket.   
Nothing outstanding about it…just a simple white waist-length jacket, nothing patched or stitched to it. The elbow sections of the sleeves were coiled and creased, showing the owner frequently rolled the sleeves up…funny, just like…   
I jerked my head up, peering again into the blackness, but still no one visible. It couldn't be…no way. Plenty of people wore white jackets and rolled their sleeves up, not just McCloud. Even so, a white jacket wasn't exactly Venom standard issue, I wasn't armed except for the pipe…but I had the element of surprise. My gut instinct told me to lay low. I didn't want to risk being seen by the climber before he saw me, in case by some twist of fate it turned out to be someone from StarFox. Wouldn't that just be the perfect icing on this whole fucking cake?   
I silently jogged back into the loading bay and hid behind one of the large metal containers, my back flat against it. Whoever it was would have to walk past the container to get to the door into the corridor, giving me plenty of time to make an ID and to decide what to do.   
The rhythmic pinging became louder and, a few minutes later, was punctuated by a heavy, and very close, thump. After a few seconds, I heard the rustling of cloth…whoever it was had landed and was probably putting the jacket back on. Slow footsteps began working their way towards me, and I readied the pipe…if my guest had a gun and saw me, it would be about as effective as a spitball. I held my breath as the footsteps sounded so close that they could be my own…a shadow crept its way first past the container, its source following it. As he stepped forward, I saw him.   
It was almost impossible to believe, like I was dreaming it. I knew it as the first boot crossed into my view, followed by the green leg, the white jacket, and then the head. I bared my teeth slightly as the top of my most-hated list walked slowly past me towards the door, blaster ready in-hand. What the hell was Fox McCloud doing here? How the hell could he be here?! It must have been that goddamn Cornerian scout we had captured a couple days before…the raccoon that had put on such a magnificent show at the first E3 experiment.   
I stared after the bastard, wondering what to do. Either fate was trying to make things harder for me, or I was being given a very big treat…and considering I had the drop on him, I would go with the treat idea. Maybe the one good thing that I could bring out of this was that I had finally killed Fox McCloud. If I could do that, this entire damn ordeal would be all worth it. With that in mind, my face frozen in an expression of anger and hatred, I crept slowly towards him.   
One soft step…another…he opened the door to the corridor, stopping to peek both ways, pistol up. It gave me all the time I needed. Before he could step into the corridor, I was right behind him, grinning wide. Taking a nice wind-up, I swung the pipe and it connected with a glorious thump with the back of McCloud's head. The gun clattered to the ground from his hands as he slumped wordlessly to his knees, then fell flat, unconscious. For the first time in recent memory, I laughed, looking down at my prize. Finally, a silver lining in this endless storm cloud.   
  
  


_Soon after..._   
  
  


The first thing I noticed when me eyes fluttered open was the throbbing pain in my head. It felt like an Arwing had used it as a landing pad, and then exploded. My next thought was what the hell had happened to me? Was it all a dream? Was I already sitting on the beach, just feeling the effects of heatstroke or something?   
No such luck. As my vision cleared slightly, I could see that I was sitting on the cold metal floor of a corridor, my back against the wall. The next pang of fear came moments later, when I groaned and tried to raise my hand to my head. They wouldn't budge from behind my back. After a few seconds of pulling and twisting, I saw that my wrists were tied behind a pole that protruded from the wall.   
"Don't get comfortable," a voice said from in front of me. A very familiar voice… "I'm only keeping you alive long enough for you to see that it was me…your last sight before you die."   
I knew I should've taken the vacation.   
I swallowed hard at the comment, finally placing the voice. My vision cleared all the way and it was confirmed. I stared wide-eyed up at him in disbelief, noticing that he was holding my gun, his arms folded.   
"…Wolf?"   
"Surprised?" he replied, a humorless grin pulling at his muzzle, his single eye boring into me. "Not as surprised as I was. You're lucky you arrived now instead of earlier, at least you'll get a clean death."   
"Huh? What is this place? What the hell are you doing here?"   
"What does it look like, taking a vacation?" he said irritably. "You're not the only mercenary out there. This is a bio-weapons lab, and I was put in charge of it. Looks like my time here is up, though…along with yours."   
I took a quick look around, noticing the silence and the blood that stained Wolf's hands and much of his front. "Did something go wrong?"   
"No shit, are you really as stupid as you look? You think I parade around covered in blood and carrying a metal pipe for fun? I'm the only living person left down here, and you just ruined the only way out. Even if I wasn't about to kill you, you're fucked anyway. There're a couple hundred deformed freaks running around down here right now." He took a few steps closer to me and unfolded his arms, leveling my trusty sidearm so I was staring right down the barrel. "But you won't have to worry about that in a second. Goodnight, McCloud."   
"No, wait!" I choked out desperately, breaking out in a cold sweat as his finger tightened on the trigger. "There might be another way out!"   
"There isn't," he replied bluntly. "I've lived in this damn can for months."   
"Think about it! I know Venom design too…and a facility like this would never have just one cargo elevator as its only means of entrance and exit. In every one I've seen, there was always another emergency way out…something that they wouldn't show on the maps."   
I was rambling, anything to delay that last centimeter on the trigger that decided whether my brains stayed where I liked them or became a new form of abstract art on the wall. Something I said must've made sense, because he didn't fire and his brow wrinkled. Heart pounding, not able to tear my eyes from the black hole of the gun barrel, I figured I shouldn't stop there. I may not have said what I said next if I had more time to think, more time to realize that it was probably the last thing I would ever even think of saying…and the last thing he would ever consider.   
"And if there actually is another way out, two stand a better chance of making it there."   
I was almost as surprised as he was. His eye went wide and he looked at me as if I grew a third eye…then he laughed, hard, a sign I took as 'no.' "Good one, McCloud, always the comedian. Are you suggesting that I let you loose so you can just shoot me in the back the first chance you get?"   
"Then I'd be in the same situation as you…stuck at the bottom of this place with all those things you're talking about, alone." Funny…now that I had said it and had to defend it, the idea was actually starting to make a little sense. Thankfully, I think Wolf started to see it too, because his grin faded and he looked me square in the eye, silent for seconds that seemed like hours. It could've been a stand-off…if I wasn't tied to the wall.   
"And what about when we make it out…if we make it out," he finally said. "Are we supposed to just walk our separate ways? Or would you wait until then to shoot me in the back?"   
"You think I don't have those same concerns about you?" I said, but immediately regretted it. He already could just shoot me, and it was obvious I was trying to get out of it. "Why not just walk our own ways, pretend this never happened? I'm missing out on my damn vacation right now."   
He cocked his eyebrow, probably wondering if I was joking…I wish I was. I rested my case with, "Besides, why worry about that now? We still have to get there, and you'll never have to worry about me shooting you in the end because you won't make it there alone anyway."   
Wolf O'Donnell may be a cold-hearted, evil piece of shit, but he wasn't that stupid. Neither of us liked the idea, as was apparent by the cold glares we exchanged, but I liked the idea far more than wandering the bowels of that damn place waiting for whatever these freaks were to give me a warm welcome. I knew he would try to kill me once we were out, but like I said, let's get there first.   
I steadied my breathing as he continued staring down at me for another minute, a scowl on his muzzle. I swallowed hard and closed my eyes as he stepped forward and crouched beside me, bringing the gun with him. After a few seconds, I slowly opened them again as I realized I wasn't dead, and I felt my wrists become looser. I looked over and let my breath out in relief as I saw that Wolf had put the gun down and was busy untying me. After the cord he had used fell away, he quickly snatched up the gun again and stood, pointing it at me.   
"You better pray there's another way out," he snarled, glaring at me as I slowly stood, rubbing my wrists. "And if you try any funny moves, I won't hesitate to add your corpse to the piles already here, got it? Let's go."   
  


_-Chapter 4 coming soon-_   



	4. Last Chance

[Author's Note: Apologies for the delay, but finals week at school occupied much of my time along with finding a summer job and the difficulty at writing this story well. This is only Wolf's half of Chapter 4, and I'm going away to Florida until Friday and didn't want to leave you with nothing. Fox's half will be posted this weekend and I'll finally be free to write more now that school's out. Also, thank you to those who reviewed, and please keep doing so...this story is proving difficult to write and I want to make sure I keep it good, so any criticism is welcome. Thanks for reading and enjoy! --Foxmerc]   
  
CHAPTER 4   
Last Chance   
_1324 hours_   
  
  


What the hell was wrong with me? Was I really freeing Fox McCloud from the death I had wanted to deal to him for so long? Not only that, but I was letting the bastard accompany me! I was so close, my finger was on the damn trigger…but then he started making sense. I had seen what those freaks could do, and it was true that two stood a much better chance. McCloud had never seen them…if he had known everything I knew, he might have begged me to shoot right there and end it, and that wouldn't have taken much convincing.   
As he stood up and nervously glanced at me, I decided it wasn't such a bad idea after all. He had at least some naïve notion of honor or all that dumb shit, so he might actually not shoot me in the back. I, on the other hand, couldn't care less. Just use his help in killing these things and getting out of here, and boom, blast in the back of the head, he'll never even see it coming. I always wanted to make his death much more drawn out and painful than that, but I'll get what I can take. Maybe I'll put a laser in his groin first, just for kicks.   
"So do I get a weapon?" Fox asked, snapping me out of my future plans. "Or should I just kick them in the shins?"   
"Why do you think I'm using your gun, smartass?" I replied, glaring at him. "It's the only one here. We'll have to stop at the armory on the other side of the test chambers. Hope you have a strong stomach."   
As he started down the corridor, McCloud glanced back at me in a defensive kind of way. I followed him, my finger never leaving the trigger, and grinned slightly…I couldn't wait to see his reaction to the sights I had come across. He walked slowly, eyes darting around, and I had to roughly nudge him a few times, though I couldn't really blame him…I was the one shuffling around like a fucking baby only a half hour before.   
Fox's expression when he saw the dead monster in the corridor was just as classic as that unfortunate leopard who got ripped apart in the test chamber. He rounded the corner and saw the bulbous, hellish mass lying there and stopped short. He recoiled back and bumped into me, nearly causing me to fire, and hit the back wall, his eyes wide as plates. I could tell from the way he started to double over, hands over his muzzle, that he was about to heave. Truthfully, the idea hadn't escaped me either…the corpse was beginning to stink up the corridor like an open sewer.   
"What…what the…" he choked out between swallows, trying to keep his lunch down, still staring at the monster. "What…is…that thing?"   
"Beauty, aint it?" I replied, enjoying the scene. "Like I said, this is a bio-weapons research lab, and a gas that turns people into that is the product. Great show to watch. Unfortunately, the shit-for-brains techies didn't keep their equipment working, and the gas was released, along with a couple of the freaks."   
"The…the blast," Fox said, cocking an eyebrow.   
"What?"   
He slowly stood up again, leaning on the wall for support. "When I was on the roof…a bunch of gas was shot out of the base."   
"That was me purging it," I replied, slitting my eyes. "Wait a minute…you mean you came down here voluntarily after seeing that?"   
He nodded and I slowly shook my head. "You're a fucking moron, you know that?"   
It was a rhetorical question, but he grimaced and muttered, "Believe me, I know."   
I was about to make further soul-shattering comments on his intellect, but I was interrupted by another argument…a guttural scream that echoed distantly through the hall. I decided not to argue. Fox also heard it and his frightened expression told me that he had no objections to continuing either. "Come on, go, now!"   
We continued back towards the armory, moving a little quicker, but running was out of the question…didn't want to risk being heard or turning a corner and skidding right into the arms of one of the freaks. I kept the gun trained behind us, glancing back every few seconds, but no more screams were heard and no monster made our acquaintance. It's times like those that having one eye can be a real pain in the ass.   
Before long, we rounded the corner to the Playground, third time that day for me. Fox's foot hit the cougar's head, just as mine had, and he looked down at the half-bitten skull. That did it…with hardly a moment's hesitation he leaned to the side and heaved. I watched as he lost it and laughed scornfully out loud.   
"Stop being such a wimp…there'll probably be much more, worse than this."   
"Shut up!" he shouted, still doubled over and breathing heavily. Out of nowhere, he suddenly bared his teeth in anger and kicked the head like the starting quarterback for a football team, sending it bouncing down the corridor. He turned to me with an angry glare. "This is all your damn fault! You and Venom! One stupid thing after another! Damn you all!"   
I waited patiently, grinning at him. It was a common reaction when confronted with imminent death or pain…get pissed off. I'd seen it plenty of times in torture victims, and it only got funnier. "Well, if you're done with your tantrum, should we keep going? Or should I leave you here for whatever's behind us…maybe he'd be more willing to listen."   
He glared at me for another few seconds, probably thinking about giving to me what I had wanted to give to him…a slow, painful death. We'll see who wins in the end, though…it was already decided that Fox McCloud was not going to leave the base alive, it was just a matter of when we got topside. And if he was thinking the same thing, then so what? I could beat him in anything, any day.   
"Hell, why'd I even give you a chance?" I asked out loud, following my train of thought. "You may act all hot shit in the air, but you're nothing but a soft little weakling on the ground."   
I walked over and again slid open the door to the Playground. We would have to pass through it to the opposite door, which continued the corridor to the armory, and eventually the cell block. As I walked in, I could hear the baby trailing behind me.   
"I've been in plenty of ground fights," he said defensively. "This whole mess just happened a little abruptly…it's not my fault you're a cold-hearted bastard who enjoys death."   
Cold-hearted bastard…ahhh, I love the way that just rings in my ear. I'm probably called that more than I am by my actual name and it only makes me grin every time…it just means that they fear me. Or, in McCloud's case, it just means that they're weaker.   
"Thanks for the compliment, but flattery will get you nowhere," I replied in a patronizing tone. "I'd rather be a cold-hearted bastard than a weak little sh—"   
"Dear God…" he breathed, apparently not even hearing me. He gazed around the test chambers at the gallons of blood that painted the walls and floor and the layers of shredded flesh and fur that were thrown around like confetti at Hell's own New Year's Eve party. At least this time he didn't puke…after a few seconds, he set his jaw and followed after me to the door. Maybe he was seeing what the monsters could really do and figured it wasn't time for a coffee break just yet.   
I opened the far door and was greeted by another corpse, a lizard guard, the ugly slash across his front telling the story of his death. I didn't care so much about the guard as I did for what he was holding…a beautiful Venom standard-issue assault rifle. I checked the mag in it and found that it was just about at full power…he only got a few shots off before whatever it was that killed him finished the job. Loading up, I took the two spare energy mags in his pocket and stuck them in my own, then headed down the new corridor.   
"Hey!" Fox shouted after me, still standing by the corpse. "Do I get one, or what? I'm not going to be much good without a gun."   
Actually, I could think of plenty of ways to make use of the unarmed McCloud…bait, distraction, all the fun stuff. I looked at him for a few seconds, again not believing the amazing irony of the situation I was in. First I don't shoot him…now I'm actually contemplating giving my worst enemy a weapon. Well, what the hell…no use letting him come along if he couldn't land a laser or two into the freaks. I tossed him his pistol and held onto the rifle. "Not like you're going to be much use anyway."   
He mumbled something under his breath while checking the pistol, then followed me as we continued towards the armory. This new corridor didn't have the appeal of the mostly-unmarred one by the elevator. Laser burns pocked the walls, and the lights were flickering in some places, giving the halls a weird strobe effect that hurt my eye. Corpses weren't in abundance there either, which could only mean more freaks.   
We took it nice and slow, no rush. I was just getting ready to celebrate arriving at the armory with no encounter when we stopped short at the sound of a loud snuffling, like a whale with allergies. It turned into a hissing, then back to the snuffling…and it was coming from just around the corner, by the armory. I looked back at Fox, and he nodded and raised the pistol. Psh, yeah right…I'd probably have to hold his hand and promise him a lollipop after the fight.   
Taking a deep breath and shouldering the rifle, I slowly rounded the corner, McCloud on my heels. There it stood…six and a half feet of pure freak. The deformed body swayed drunkenly, groaning and snuffling, its back thankfully to us. I heard McCloud's breath catch in his throat, and I wasn't laughing this time…there was nothing remotely funny when there was no glass separating me from the monster. We both stared stupidly at it, neither of us wanting to fire and risk it being ineffective, thus giving the freak free game to tear us apart like rag dolls.   
Then, its wet breathing stopped and it stood dead still…   
It had heard us or smelled us or something, because it started to turn. That pretty much eliminated our options…I took aim and fired a laser straight to the head. It had pretty much the same reaction that a normal person would have…if bitten by a mosquito. The big bastard merely shook its head, a mix of thick yellow pus and blood leaking from the wound, and let out an ear-shattering roar. That gave a swift kick in the ass to our survival instincts…for the first time in history, McCloud and I both fired the same way, at the same enemy.   
While the monster wasted time roaring, we wasted him instead. The same leaking wounds soon covered its lumpy barf-colored torso as we fired, and it took a stumbling step backwards. When McCloud's gun clicked on empty and I had fired ten shots, the monster collapsed to the deck, smoking from the burning laser holes. I put another two in it just to make sure, but it didn't get up.   
"That wasn't so bad," Fox said, letting out his breath and frowning at his empty gun.   
"As long as they don't come in two or three, which they will," I replied. "And as long as we always get a first shot to the head, which we won't. And as long as they don't do their long jump, which they will. Don't worry, you'll be pissing your pants again before long."   
He scowled at me and shoved his useless gun in the holster. The armory door was in sight further down the corridor, and it looked like we were clear. I stepped over the corpse and headed for it, McCloud following. I heard him mutter something like, "Another glorious product for the galaxy, care of Venom" to the corpse as he stepped over it. It sure as hell would have been if the techies hadn't fucked it all up…drop a load of these into a Cornerian base or city, and enjoy the show.   
I had worred that the armory might have been torn apart, but surprisingly enough, the door was still intact and locked. I swiped my security card and the bitch of a door gave me a pleasant, happy little ding before sliding open. A full stock spread out before me, racks of guns, ammo, explosives, and anything else used in the fine art of death-dealing. The only thing wrong with the room was the dead body of one of the scientists, an old hare, lying flat on his back. A pool of blood circled his head and he held a pistol limply in one hand…I didn't need to check the clip to tell me that he only fired one shot.   
Fox saw this too and squinted. "Suicide?"   
"It makes sense. He either heard the monsters out there or worse…he saw the gas coming. It was the better way to go, either way." I passed by the corpse and kicked it out of the way roughly. "Good riddance…I'd kill all these goddamn geeks myself if they weren't all dead already."   
McCloud apparently shared that view too because he nodded and shot a glare down at the corpse. Well, maybe that's not true…he hated the scientists for a different reason, because they were creating something that would harm his precious Lylat. Me, I just hated them because they couldn't keep their shit straight and now I had to pay for it.   
I made my way through the treasure trove, taking a pistol of my own to replace the one I had left in my room. Next stop was ammo, but I figured I'd need more than I could fit in my pockets. I strapped on a tac-vest, which had more places too keep ammo than I could count, along with hooks for grenades and radios and all that. I didn't put any of it to waste; the vest bulged as if I was turning into one of the freaks myself, but I wasn't going for looks.   
"Let's go…through the cell block is the emergency stairwell, which goes up a couple floors to Central Control. We can figure out what to do there."   
  


_-Chapter 4b coming soon-_   



	5. Last Chance, part 2

[Author's Note: Back from Florida and back to writing. Here's the second part of Chapter 4. Thanks for reading and enjoy! --Foxmerc]   
__   
__   
__ __

_1347 hours_   
  
  


The past hour had been a blur to me, a hellish nightmare that I couldn't understand and couldn't wake up from. Ever since I awoke with Wolf pointing a gun at my head, I was entangled in a mass of confusion, trying to piece together what exactly I had gotten myself into. Finally, after the test chambers, what that piece of shit called the "Playground," and seeing the dead scientist in the armory, all the pieces fell into place.   
The empty base on land was just a front for this Venom bio-weapons facility deep underneath it. Apparently, a bunch of scientists were trying to develop a gas that enhanced abilities, to make a super-soldier or something like that. Instead, they got these deformed monstrosities like the one we just capped. Something went wrong and the gas leaked out into the base, and voila…instant hell. Throw me into the mix, and you got a psychotic wolf working with a fox who's pissed off that he chose death over his vacation.   
Understanding the situation didn't make it any less crazy, and knowing that death could be waiting right around the corner didn't soften the blow. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, reminding myself that I'd been in plenty of tough situations before, and I'd always made it out. Fate just decided to spice this one up a little by throwing in Wolf as a battle buddy. With a determined mind, I set to the task of gearing up for the happy jaunt ahead.   
I took off my jacket and threw it aside, replacing it with a black combat vest, as I had seen Wolf do. I added a thigh holster to my left leg and replaced my old blaster with two high-power ones, and slung an assault rifle over my shoulder. Stuffed up on ammo, I nodded at Wolf's plan and started for the door when my eye caught something: a gun locker on the far wall with a row of guns that seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place. I walked over and pulled one of the sleek, rifle-like weapons from the rack. The pump on the front grip gave it away, and the boxes of round cylindrical shells under the guns confirmed it. "Shotguns? These things are ancient, your funding must really be low."   
Wolf turned and scowled at the weapon in my hands. "Congratulations, you found a shotgun, want a cookie? Hurry your ass up. I'll stick with the rifle, it's automatic."   
"Your aim must be as bad as your piloting skills then," I muttered under my breath, checking over the gun.   
"What?"   
"Nothing." I looked over the numerous boxes of shells, noticing that a few were red, others green, and the rest purple. According to the box markings, the green were normal rounds, the red were explosive, and the purple were incendiary. With a shrug, I emptied a couple pockets of pistol clips and filled them with shells instead, taking more of the purple and red ones than green.   
After figuring out the daunting task of loading the damn gun, I found a neat little feature. I could load up to six rounds of each shell and there was a selector on top of the gun, so I could switch between ammo types on the fly. After loading up the eighteen shells, I switched it to normal shot and pumped it with a satisfying ratchet sound. Wolf rolled his eyes and turned to leave. "You better hope that works. Lasers have already proven effective, and I aint giving you any of my gear if that thing flops."   
"Yeah, yeah, it'll work, just go," I replied irritably. Wolf had that uncommon ability to get on your nerves within seconds of meeting him, and this free tour of the base was no exception. Hefting the shotgun up, I followed him back out into the nightmarish base.   
It turned out that our new firearms would lose their virginity right away. Another monster stood further down the hall, shambling towards us, apparently attracted by the death of its comrade. It roared in discovery upon seeing us, but it didn't charge. Instead it crouched, emitting a low growl, its beady eyes slitted at us. Wolf shouldered his rifle to fire, but then his eyes went wide and he backed up and shouted, "Get down!"   
I should have listened, knowing that he'd seen these things in action. Well, chalk it up to my distrust in him, but in any case, I remained standing and looking at the thing, wondering what it was doing. My question was unfortunately answered as the creature gave a nerve-shattering scream and jumped clear down the corridor. It was the last thing I expected from the lumpy mass, and I froze like a damn army private as the thing came at me. At the last second, my brain kicked back into gear and I raised the shotgun. The one shot I got off was all I needed.   
With a deafening blast that echoed through the decrepit hallways, the monster was halted in midair and fell heavily to the ground, a black crater in its chest. It roared and started to get up again, but it was now facing a fully-functional McCloud again. I flicked the selector to red, the explosive shells, cocked the gun, and aimed at the creature's head. "Boom, bitch."   
The shot was dead center and released a small explosion that ripped apart the monster's head and blew it back a few yards. It didn't get up this time. Letting out my breath, I ejected the spent shells and replaced them while Wolf stood and looked at my handiwork. I gave him a patronizing little grin, holding the shotgun up. If looks could kill, his sneer would've plastered me to the wall. Muttering under his breath, he went back into the armory and came back a few minutes later with a shiny, brand-new shotgun of his own.   
With the successful test of my new toy, we started again down the corridor towards the cell block, where I probably would have ended up had I arrived a few hours earlier. We met one more monster on the way, but his back was to us. At that close range against two shotguns, he didn't even get a chance to turn around. Wolf's satisfied nod after the fight told me that he gave the shotgun a thumbs-up as well.   
The heavy reinforced door marked "Cell Block" wasn't far down the hall, and no welcome party awaited us. The door itself was a mess. A mountain range of disfigurations covered it, as if someone had taken an anti-tank gun and fired it repeatedly from inside…or as if some of the monsters were trying to break through. They didn't make it all the way through, which meant they could still be in there. Wolf was probably thinking the same thing because we both just stood there, staring at the door as if admiring a painting in a museum.   
"Well, go," Wolf finally said. "Open it."   
"Yeah right, you open it."   
"I'm the one sparing your life, open it."   
"You're only sparing me because you need me."   
"Dammit, will you just open the fucking door?!"   
Bickering like kits wouldn't get us anywhere, so I scoffed and walked towards the door. "And you call me a wimp."   
The card reader next to the door, of course, needed a card. I was about to ask Wolf for his, but the thing was smashed up and just needed the button pressed to work. I did just that and flattened myself against the wall, shotgun at the ready. After a few groaning creaks, the large door slowly slid open to reveal mayhem on par with the test chamber room.   
More flickering light revealed a long corridor with barred cells stretching down both sides. Not many of the cell doors were left intact…not many of the prisoners were left intact either, for that matter. The metal grating of the floor was covered with the same array of flesh, fur, and body parts, the kind of scene that I had expected and the kind of scene I was coming too disturbingly familiar with. A sickening dripping sound as blood leaked through the grate was the only noise as I cautiously entered the long hall.   
There had definitely been a slaughter. Gas had leaked into the room, and those not turned quick enough were torn apart by their deformed cellmates, never standing a chance because of their detainment. Whatever had happened was over, and the remaining beasts had escaped through the opposite door, which lay shredded on the ground.   
"It's clear," I said in a low voice over my shoulder. "They all—"   
My breath caught in my throat as I spotted something on the ground, a shred of clothing. I kneeled down on the slick floor and picked it up, swallowing as I wiped away the blood that smeared across it. The rectangular object was what I suspected…a patch, the Cornerian flag, worn on the arm of Cornerian military uniforms. The torn material surrounding it confirmed that it was once worn by an unfortunate soldier.   
Cornerians…   
I guess Wolf didn't expect what happened next…hell, I didn't expect it either. Maybe the nightmarish sights were getting to me, the horror of the cell block. In a flash, I had dropped my gun and slammed Wolf against the wall separating two cells, making him drop his own weapon. It wasn't the smartest move, considering our location, but I wasn't thinking smart…I was thinking about the Cornerian soldiers they had used, the Cornerian soldiers that were now disfigured husks of their normal selves.   
Wolf's eye went wide, then slitted in anger. "Get the fuck off me! What the hell—"   
"You used Cornerians! You used POWs!" I shouted, holding firm to the front of his vest, my muzzle centimeters from his.   
"So what?!" he snarled back, in a mix between anger and confusion. "Who the hell did you think we were using, ourselves?"   
I opened my mouth to answer, but I had no answer. Now that he mentioned it, I had never really thought about it, but he was right…who the hell else would they use? But now that I saw it, now that is slapped me right in the face, I was pissed.   
"Look at that!" I shouted, angrily pointing down at a blood-smeared nametape among the shreds, the name 'Ecklin' stitched on it. "Look at it! Does that mean anything to you?! Do you ever even think about what you're doing?! He was probably no more than twenty, he had a life, a history, a future…do you even realize what you stole from him?! And all for what?!"   
Wolf angrily knocked my arms away and shoved me back. "And what about what was stolen from me?! Nobody cares, so why should I care?! And don't you lecture to me, thinking you're all high and mighty…you kill for money, just as I do. How many lives did you take in the war? Huh? How many futures did you steal?"   
I stared back at him before answering, my mind blank. "But that…that was different…"   
Wolf scoffed and picked up his gun. For a second, I realized what a moron I had been to shove him like that, what with his fantastic mental balance, and prepared to get shot. Instead he just walked up to me and said, "Now cut this bullshit out, and don't ever touch me again. We have slightly more pressing business than debating whose conscience is heavier."   
My heart still pounding from anger, I looked after him as he continued down the corridor. I started to think about what he had said but stopped myself, shaking my head and hefting my shotgun back up. I had no room to lose focus now. As in every battle, there would be plenty of time to think afterwards.   
We walked silently to the opposite door and found abrasions and a blood trail leading further into the corridor, undoubtedly where the monsters had gone. Neither of us was curious enough to tempt fate without a reason, so we just moseyed on over to the door across from the cell block, the emergency stairwell.   
"Dammit," Wolf muttered under his breath, fiddling with the override lock next to it. "This shit storm must have messed with the circuits, it needs the keypad code. Damn, what was it…"   
As if to answer his rhetorical question, a roar resounded down the hall where the bloody tracks led. A heavy thumping followed it, like a quick bass drum, then accompanied by more pounding and more roars. They seemed to be getting louder…closer…   
"Wolf…" I gulped out, noticing him still trying code numbers, the panel beeping in refusal each time.   
"I know," he grumbled back.   
"Get it open!"   
"I know!"   
He continued muttering numbers and trying codes while the hellish sounds drew nearer. I could see wisps of shadows playing against the flickering light around the far corner, where the blood trail turned. That clinched it for me…I snagged a grenade from my vest and threw it like back in the old days playing baseball. The little sphere of destruction bounced against the wall just as a monster rounded the corner. The explosion tore it apart and blew back its buddies behind it, but they recovered and charged right through the smoke. I shouldered the shotgun and fired at the oncoming column. There were so many…   
"Wolf!"   
"One second, dammit!"   
"We don't have a second!"   
The gun bucked into my bruised shoulder again and again as I fired off the explosive shells, dropping three of them by time I had to switch to incendiary. Not only did the sweet purple rounds blow a crater into them, but it also set them aflame, sending them shrieking and flailing around. After lighting two up, their dancing effectively blocked the others from charging.   
"Got it!" Wolf shouted as the door dinged and slid open. He ran inside and I pumped two more shots at the crowd and followed, slamming and locking the door behind me. I had barely set the lock when a heavy thump at the door caused me to stumble back onto the metal staircase.   
"Come on!" Wolf said, hoisting me up by the vest as more thumps sounded at the heavy door. I didn't need to be told twice. We hauled ass up the metal stairs. Two floors up, the staircase ended with a door and a sign marked "Central Control." This time, Wolf did the honors of slamming and locking the door, and we both waited, panting, listening for the sounds of the nightmares on our heels. But all was quiet, the thumping had stopped.   
"The doors are heavy, able to hold water out in case of a flood," Wolf said between breaths. "They probably gave up."   
I was still shaking from the battle, so I took a few breaths to calm down. Air combat was one thing, ground combat against normal soldiers another…but this crap was in a league of its own. No amount of training or experience prepares you for something like this.   
After we took a minute of rest, Wolf led the short distance to Central Control, a huge multi-tiered room, at least the size of the test chambers. As a change of scenery, it was still brightly lit and looked fairly new, each tier lined with consoles and monitors and all that. Wolf went for a computer in the center and started typing at it after propping his gun against the desk. I waited patiently, keeping my eyes on the doors, ready to play bouncer to any unwanted guests.   
"Good, it still works," he reported after a minute. "All data is stored in these consoles, and every mechanical device can be controlled from here."   
"What about the map? Is there another exit?"   
"Keep your damn pants on, I'm getting there." He continued typing at the computer and I continued to wait. "Alright, there."   
The holo-projector at the front of the room clicked and hummed before spitting out a slowly-rotating model of the facility, complete with cargo elevator and abandoned topside.   
"Ok, this is where we are now." A red dot blinked near the bottom. "And if I type in the command to highlight all exits, we get this." The elevator shaft turned red and pulsed, along with the door at the top of the land base and the hangar. And something else…   
"Wait, what's that?" I asked, squinting and pointing. At the first sub-level, the topmost floor of the box we were stuck in, a part of the wall pulsed, but there was nothing beyond it. "Look, what's that?"   
"Hell if I know." He typed some more and the top base and elevator shaft disappeared, allowing him to zoom in on the red pulse. "It doesn't matter, there's nothing past it, which means open ocean. It says "Emergency Exit and Transport", but it must just be a docking for subs or something."   
I walked up to the hologram and squinted hard at the red part. "Zoom out a little…little more…ok." Just beyond the red, leading into the ocean, I swore I could see a very faint extension, flickering. "Turn the contrast and lighting all the way up."   
As he adjusted the hologram, the base took on a weird, headache-inducing color, but as I suspected, the flickering extension past the exit on the first sub-level became clearer. "It must've been a glitch, messed with the system during this whole mess. There's something there, what is it?"   
Mumbling, Wolf went back to typing, and the extension lit up as if the base had grown an arm. It went at a 45 degree angle straight through the ocean, out of range of the hologram.   
"It's a tunnel," Wolf said with slight surprise, looking at the readings on the monitor. "It was used to transport heavy machinery and stuff like that. According to this, it goes for a few miles straight through the ocean and comes up on an island east of here. We never used it…probably why I was never told about it."   
I looked at the blinking red tunnel which awaited us a couple dozen floors up. It was out lifeline, our last chance to get out of this hellhole. "Then that's where we're headed," I said, starting to reload my shotgun. "Let's go."   
  


_ --Chapter 5 coming soon--_   



	6. Run Like Hell

  
[Author's Note: Because of the complexity and basic difficulty of writing this story, updates seem to take longer than I'd like at this rate. There will be some...surprises soon, hehe. Therefor, from now on, I'm going to post updates in half-chapters, like I did with the last one. So one update will be Wolf and the next will be Fox, both of one chapter. Thanks for reading and enjoy! --Foxmerc]   
  
  


CHAPTER 5   
Run Like Hell   
_1423 hours_   
  
  


He was getting more confident, that annoying cockiness that had always made me want to punch in my Wolfen's viewscreen was surfacing. It might be harder to get him to do things my way, but God help him if he pushed me too far. That shit in the cell block was almost over the line, but it was one of those great instances where I hurt him where it counts…mentally. Nothing like making the "hero" see that he's just as much a murder as the rest of us.   
Something else kept me from decorating the walls with his brains, though it was merely an afterthought, not enough to save his ass if it happened again. I didn't know what to make of it. Way, way back, someone told me that the most dangerous thing that a soldier could do is to think of his enemy as a fellow person. If you did that, you would see that you and he could just as easily be sitting in a bar, laughing and sharing a beer, had there not been a war on. With that in mind, you would hesitate in battle, maybe even break down.   
The second most dangerous thing is to be in a position where you fight alongside him. According to him, the bonds that form between "comrades at arms" rival those of a deep friendship, or some bullshit like that.   
I was this young little bastard when he told me that, and I've lived by it since that day. Cornerians? Ha, they were fucking worthless as shit to me, merely put in this galaxy for my pleasure in their destruction. Hell, I don't even consider Venomians comrades. I would've done that guy proud…but look at me now. Not only had I allied with the enemy, but I felt something in the cell block. I felt my usual desire to blow that face of his clear off the planet, but at the same time…   
I glared at him as he finished with his shotgun and headed for the far door. Nope…still wanted to kill him…   
Unfortunately, as I glanced again at the holographic model, I still had a long way to think about it. We were on Sub-Level 18, and the damn tunnel was on Sub-Level 1. As if reading my thoughts, McCloud spoke up.   
"So is there another emergency staircase that leads up to the first floor?"   
Like anything that day had been that easy. "No, the geniuses that constructed this place never figured to make something like that. The only ways off this level that I know of are the cargo elevator, which we can't use, and another emergency stairwell on the other side. There's only one problem…"   
"Only one?"   
"Shut up and listen. I've never been to any floor above Sub 15. We're on Sub 18 now, this one and the ones below us are the floors where the testing and shit happens. Above us are a few floors used for barracks, dining, storage, all that. 15 and up aren't used. I don't know what this place used to be, but we never had a use for those floors."   
He looked at me expectantly with a "who gives a shit" shrug. "It means, moron, that they aren't maintained, so they're in even worse shape than these floors. I don't know if there's even a way to get through them, or if there are any exits that are still usable."   
"Well, only one way to find out. Better than sitting around here."   
I picked up my shotgun and walked ahead of him into the corridor. "There's another stairwell further on, past another test chamber room. It goes up, that's all I know."   
I was getting really tired of the shitty hallways, and it would only get worse as we went up. We were back to our normal slow, semi-silent walk through the dim, grimy corridors, weapons shouldered and taking point. McCloud checked behind us every few seconds. At least his survival instincts finally seemed to kick in.   
This part of the floor near the secondary test chamber was only used by a few scientists and guards, so the freak population was pretty low. We ran into a couple, both former scientists judging from the shredded clothing, blocking the hallway. I got to test out my explosive shells, and the result was two smoldering craters where the chest used to be. McCloud took care of the other one with an incendiary that made the hallway smell like a mix between burning flesh and rotten meat. His face twisted at the smell also. "Remind me not to use those in tight spaces."   
I felt the beginnings of a grin form, but quickly suppressed it and continued on. After stepping over the smoldering blobs, I stopped short and put my hand up in a halting gesture. Leaning a bit forward, I strained my ears and could barely make out a dull, muffle pounding. And, continuing on my luck streak, it was coming straight from the secondary test chamber room up the hall. "You hear that?"   
McCloud quietly came up next to me and scrunched his eyebrows in concentration. "Yeah, seems their back to work. Are they trying to pound through a door?"   
"Well, I doubt their trying to hammer it back in place."   
"It doesn't sound like metal, though," he continued, tilting his head. "More like plastic or glass."   
"There could still be one in the test chamber, but it would've broken through by now." I raised my shotgun and continued on, nearing the door with the mystery guest pounding away at something. Once I had my back flattened against the wall to the side of the door, with McCloud on the other side, I motioned to get his attention. "Listen, this room is set up differently than the other test chamber. It's just a big room with a bunch of consoles and a single floor-to-ceiling reinforced glass tube in the center where the freak's probably gonna be." He nodded and I motioned for him to go.   
"Fuck you, I went first into the cells," he scoffed back at me. Bastard was definitely getting more confident. Good for combat, not for testing my patience. "Your turn."   
I shot him a menacing glare, but arguing about a door wasn't the best use of our time with those things after us. The pounding stopped as soon as I turned the handle, which was probably a bad sign. I kicked it the rest of the way open and slipped in with McCloud right behind me.   
There was definitely someone in the tube, alright. But it wasn't a monster. Instead two frightened eyes belonging to a youngish-looking orange and black tiger stared back at me through the glass. He was wearing the same tattered Cornerian Army uniform that the other prisoners were wearing, and the same scared-as-hell expression that they all died with. After his initial shock of seeing us, he pounded his fist again on the tube and shouted a very muffled "Get me outta here."   
My first gut instinct was to blow a hole clear through the tube, and through our new acquaintance, or maybe use an incendiary and see what kind of neat effect it had on normal people. McCloud must've seen that glint in my eye, because he grabbed my shoulder and said, "Don't even think about it. Affiliation doesn't matter anymore, he's another survivor who can shoot."   
"I said don't touch me," I growled back, shrugging his hand off. He was making sense again, and it was starting to piss me off. The tiger stared at me with that frightened expression that I just love pulling out of my victims, and I stood frozen in indecision. McCloud finally made the first move and headed for one of the control consoles, looking for a way to get the kid out. It wasn't rocket science, there was a switch marked "Container Control", but it took the dumbass a minute to find it.   
The glass tube slid down and the tiger hopped off the platform, nearly stumbling over himself like a botched circus act. When he regained his footing, he stood and breathed heavily, eyes wide open. "Th-thanks…bastards locked me in there then disappeared, then this gas came and…and—"   
He stopped and cocked an eyebrow, looking me as if for the first time and backing up a step, then looking at Fox. He obviously knew who we both were…Fox for obvious reasons and me because of my frequent visits to the cell block. He looked at us back and forth as if watching a tennis match. "What, did hell freeze over or something?"   
He received a slight grin from McCloud and a scowl from me, so he fixated on Fox. The kid looked and sounded like just that…a kid. He didn't have a high voice or anything, but it was his general demeanor and scared way of looking around and talking that made it obvious he was a fresh recruit. Fox probably saw this too, and he pulled out one of the desk chairs for him to sit at. The tiger took it and drew in a few deep breaths while Fox proceeded with the obvious questions. "What's your name? What were you doing in that tube?"   
"Private Tom Keirs, Cornerian Army. Everyone calls me Tommy. I was brought up here from the cells, uh…maybe a few hours ago and shoved into the tube. All these freaky scientists in lab coats looked at me like I was some kind of interesting bug, and they fiddled around with the computers over there. After a few minutes of that, knowing that I was going to end up like my friends, whose remains had been dragged right in front of us, there was a loud commotion from out there." He pointed to the door we came through. "The scientists went to look, and they never came back. Some kind of green gas filled the room after that, but it didn't come into the tube for some reason. I—"   
"The test chambers have their own air filtration," I muttered back at him.   
"Oh…well, there ya go then. So I just stood there for what seemed like forever, blinded to everything by this gas, and eventually it just went away. All was silent until I heard gunshots out there, and I pounded on the tube. Guess I got your attention. So where is everyone? Why the hell are you two together?"   
I looked at Fox to answer that one, but he got the same idea because he met my gaze with the same questioning look. With a scoff, I just grabbed the kid by the shoulder. "Hey—" he protested as I dragged him back to the door and pushed him into the corridor. The two scorched monster corpses still decorated the floor, and Keirs froze as they caught his eye. He gaped at them pretty much like anyone would upon seeing something like that.   
"Those things…th-the monsters…like the kind we saw in the cells, when…" he looked up at me, the beginnings of a glare I had received so many times forming. "…when you dragged the bodies through…bastard."   
I'd already taken enough shit from McCloud, I wasn't about to let this little bastard start in on it. I grabbed him by the throat with one hand and slammed him against the wall, growling into his wide-eyed face. "Now listen to me, you little piece of shit. That gas you saw is what did this, and we're the only survivors of it. You know what that means? It means there are still around two-hundred of them running around. And it means you better suck it up, because if you slow us down or prove useless, I won't hesitate to add you to the list of casualties, get me?"   
He pulled at my tight grasp, but from the fear in his eyes, it looked like the utter shitiness of the situation got through to him. He choked out in a near whisper, "What…what about my division? All the Cornerian soldiers…"   
I simply pointed again to the freaks, and Keirs clenched his eyes shut, a single tear rolling down his muzzle and over my hand on his throat. Through a strained, cracking voice he whispered, "I knew it…I knew it, I'm going to die in this place. I'm never going to see my home or family again. We can't make it…we're dead…"   
With a disgusted scoff, I dropped him and turned to go back into the test chamber room Just what I needed…more damn babysitting duty for some frantic Cornerian kid. Fox was standing at the door, and I gestured back to Keirs. "That blubbering crap is yours, if he doesn't get his ass in gear soon, I'm killing him."   
It was starting to look like fate kept me alive just so that I could be tortured more by throwing in these fucking asses to deal with. Our little party was starting to grow, and it was really riding my nerves. Surrounded by Cornerians and monsters in a run-down box under the ocean, the only escape still eighteen floors above us…life couldn't get much worse.   
  


_-Chapter 5b coming soon-_   



	7. Run Like Hell, part 2

  
[Author's Note: Again, apologies for the update delay, but it might be this long for a bit. I'm now working nearly full-time and only get a few hours free per day. However, rest assured that this story will not die. That said, here's the second half of Chapter 5. Thanks for reading and enjoy! --Foxmerc]   
  
  
  


CHAPTER 5   
Run Like Hell   
  
  
  


Of course I knew Wolf was serious in his threat. Actually, I was pretty surprised that he hadn't killed the tiger already. Wolf's reputation for following a "Live and let live" policy wasn't too good, and I thought Tommy's little breakdown in the corridor clinched his fate. But Wolf just strode out the far door, leaving me to deal with the kid.   
I really felt for him, seeing him kneel there with a tear-streaked muzzle, stuck in this nightmare. It was obvious he had even less preparation for this kind of thing than anyone could have. With a low sigh, I walked over to him and knelt beside him, keeping my ears pricked for any party-crashers.   
"Tommy?" I said in a gentle tone. He didn't seem to hear me; he just kept giving the monster corpses a forlorn look. "Tommy, listen…you have to—"   
"I used to work in this fast-food place," he suddenly cut in with a strained voice, his eyes distant. "This normal part-time job…just to get up money to go to college. Nobody in my family had ever gone to college, and we were all determined that I would be the first. I hated the job, dealing with pushy customers, getting burned, minimum wage, all that. So I saw this ad for the Cornerian Army. It looked alright, you know? Traveling, doing all this cool army-type stuff, and I'd get a government loan for college. The war was technically over, so I thought I'd be pretty safe also. But now, I…I…" He brought his hands to his face and muttered through them, his voice choked with tears. "I wish I was back at that job…I'd do anything to be there instead of here."   
Poor kid. I put my hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed. "There's no sense in wishing for something in the past. Believe me, I've done it. There's nothing you could have done for them. Hell, it's a miracle that you were where you were when it happened, so don't waste that. We already found a way out on Sub-level 1, and we've been doing alright against these things so far. This isn't hopeless, we can make it. You'll still have that life. All you have to do is suck it up for now and come with us, alright?"   
It wasn't suicide hot-line material, but we didn't have time for much else. If he didn't come with us, either Wolf would kill him or a monster would. Fortunately, it didn't come to that. Tommy's breathing turned normal again and he slowly lowered his hands. His eyes were red, but dry. He didn't look exactly battle-hungry, but the expression he wore would have to do. It was a determined yet scared-to-hell look that any kid would have in this kind of situation.   
"There's a way out?" he asked a bit timidly. "Well…I guess it's worth a shot. This all just seems like a nightmare, and I can't wake up. I don't want to die…not like this."   
I think all three of us pretty much had that same thought that this was a nightmare…that same wish I should say. I helped him up to his feet and unslung my assault rifle from my shoulder. "You just stay by me and shoot at anything bald and bubbly, and you won't die, I promise. I'm supposed to be on vacation right now, and I'm damn well gonna get there."   
He managed a weak grin as he took the rifle I offered, awkwardly checking it over like…well, like the army private he was. "My nineteenth birthday is this weekend, and I was supposed to go on leave to see my parents. I guess I'll just keep my mind on that…on seeing them again and all, you know?"   
"Good." I grinned back as I flipped the safety off for him, then turned to go back through the test chamber room. "Let's go, Wolf—"   
I stopped short, nearly having a heart attack as I saw the aforementioned bastard leaning against the doorframe, his arms folded. I still wasn't totally used to just casually seeing him, not to mention I was jumpy as it is. He took the liberty of finishing my sentence.   
"—has found the way up and has been waiting on your sorry asses. Is little Tommy over there ready to join the grown-ups?"   
Suddenly, my little pep-talk looked like psychological gold compared to him. I shot him a dirty look and glanced back at Tommy. He was blushing slightly and tried to return the glare back at Wolf, but he was still a bit too intimidated and it ended up looking like he had to take a piss. All he managed to say was, "I'm…fine."   
"What'd you find?" I asked, taking the topic off Tommy. Wolf scoffed and led us through the room's other door. Yet another cheery, broken-down hallway awaited us. What's not to like? Dim, flickering lights, blood, rust, grease, noises that couldn't be placed…it was becoming like home already.   
Our next little surprise held good news and bad news. The good news was that Wolf had discovered an elevator, a normal-size one unlike the cargo elevator. The bad news was that the elevator had decided to retire in a mangled heap on the bottom of the shaft. It seemed elevators didn't have a lot of reliability in this place.   
After holding on tight and looking down at the busted elevator, I looked in the direction that mattered: up. It stretched on into darkness, and I could make out only the next couple floors. The door right above us was open, but the one after that was closed, and there was no way we could pry it open in this position.   
"So we climb to the next floor, then find another staircase or shaft," I said, ducking back into the corridor. "That'll get us to Sub-17, right?"   
"You do that hard math all by yourself?" Wolf muttered from behind me. I ignored him and focused on the bigger problem at hand, which Tommy decided to wonder aloud. He carefully looked up the shaft and swallowed hard.   
"So, uh…how do we get up there?"   
It was a good question. One of us could reach the ledge of the floor above if boosted up, but then what? Wolf seemed to have already thought it through, because he nodded to himself and stepped forward to the ledge. "Boost me up."   
"Then how do we get up?" I asked.   
"You'll see, just do it."   
I figured he wouldn't have gone through the trouble of keeping us if he planned on dropping us down an elevator shaft when he wasn't anywhere near the exit. I shrugged and cupped my hands, gesturing for Tommy to do the same.   
The kid and I gave a collective grunt as we slowly lifted Wolf, mindful not to fall into the shaft. He kept his balance along the shaft wall and soon grabbed a hold of the Sub-17 ledge, hoisting himself over. Almost immediately, I heard a nerve-grating roar and two shotgun blasts. The roar stopped. I wasn't too disappointed about going first anymore, and it looked like Tommy was about to throw up.   
"You ok?" I shouted up into the echoing shaft.   
"Fuckin' wonderful," he replied irritably. I could hear clicks coming from his direction and seconds later, a black slithery thing hung down from the ledge. Squinting at it, I could see that it was the sling of Wolf's assault rifle. Not a bad idea. They were built with braided webbing, able to hold much more weight then me or Tommy.   
"You first," I nodded to the latter tiger. He swallowed again, apparently torn between the decision of being alone on this floor with the monsters or alone on the next floor with Wolf. Tough decision, I'll admit. It didn't look like he was too eager to play acrobat over the shaft either. Finally, he chose the lesser of two evils and slung the rifle, stepping to the edge of the shaft.   
I gave him as much boost as I could and he grabbed the sling. Wolf tugged him up and roughly pulled him over. The sling was lowered down again and I stood tip-toe to reach it, but my heart sank as my hand came short. "It's no good; you have to get it lower."   
"It can't go any lower, I'll lose my grip."   
With a growl, I tried hopping up, but I could still only brush it, and I was getting dangerously close to losing my balance. "Well, do something, I can't—"   
I stopped as I thought I heard one of them say something. After a few seconds of listening, it sounded more like heavy, rasping breathing. And it wasn't coming from the shaft…   
Praying that it was just my imagination, I slowly turned around. It wasn't my imagination. Down the corridor stood two of the living nightmares, their black eyes staring at me, almost in confusion. I stared right back. My shotgun was securely slung over my shoulder, not enough time to draw it.   
After a few seconds, they got tired of the standoff and did the only thing their shriveled brains could manage: they charged. Muttering every four-letter word I know, I made a few more frantic jumps for the sling, but to no avail. They were closing fast.   
In one of those moments of desperation, I did the only plan that had a shred of working. With a deep breath, I jumped across the shaft, shoved hard off the other side with my foot and barely grabbed the end of the sling. I hung on for dear life as the first monster flew into the shaft, slamming his head on the side and falling to the bottom with a roar. The other had a bit better reaction time, and he jumped up and grabbed onto my leg.   
I yelped in pain as I felt it tear into me, and the weight felt enough to tear my leg completely off. There were grunts from the other end of the sling as it dropped a few inches and Wolf fought to hold on. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I knew I couldn't hold on forever. I grabbed my pistol from the holster with my left hand and shoved it into the bastard's hole of a mouth. Firing seven lasers through its head seemed to change its mind about holding on. It dropped away to join its brethren at the bottom of the shaft.   
Breathing a sigh of relief, I held on as Wolf and Tommy pulled me up. I grimaced as I crawled over the ledge and looked at my leg. It felt like it was on fire and looked like someone had used it as a knife holder. Wolf sighed and shook his head, as if it was my fault. "Well, maybe if you lowered the damn thing some more, I wouldn't be like this."   
"Just shut your hole and sit there." He walked off around a corner down the corridor, out of sight. Tommy looked after him, then back at Fox and shrugged. After a few minutes, Wolf came back with a first-aid box and knelt by my leg.   
"Where'd you find that?" I asked as he opened it and rummaged around.   
"Well, this _is _the barracks level. There's an infirmary over there." He tore the remainder of my upper left pant leg off, inciting another wave of sharp pain, but it didn't look like he cared much. As he mopped the blood away and applied some kind of antiseptic thing to a bandage, I had an unsettling thought. "Hey, that monster cutting me…it didn't, like…you know…infect me, or anything, did it?"   
Wolf shrugged, again not seeming to care either way. "Probably not. If it did, the effect would have happened immediately. Well, it would give me an excuse to kill you."   
I couldn't tell if that was his morbid attempt at humor or not, so I just kept my muzzle shut and let him bandage my leg. I gritted my teeth the whole time, but it felt better when he was done. He asked if I could walk on it, and I stood up to test.   
"Yeah," I reported after a few practice steps. "Just a dull ache."   
Tommy had been keeping an eye down the corridor the whole time, and I wondered if he would actually fire if a monster came towards us. Guess we'd find out soon enough. Wolf grabbed up his shotgun and started reloading it as I unslung mine.   
"Alright, listen," he said. "Like I said, this is the barracks level. Just a bunch of bunk rooms, bathrooms, and a dining hall at the far end. And, unless most of them have moved, this was the most populated floor when the shit hit the fan. Everyone except scientists and a few guards are banned from the floor during tests."   
"So what should we do?" Tommy asked.   
He started down the corridor as I took a deep breath in preparation for another floor of torment. "If we see a bunch of them…run like hell."   
  
  
  


_-Chapter 6 coming soon-_   



	8. A Last Word

It looks like replies on this story have stopped, but I figured I'd post this for those who still read it.  
  
Hatred Falls is going on suspension. I'm not stopping it, but I'll be stopping updates for some time. The reasons? A couple. One is that I've somewhat lost my spark for it, the desire to continue it. Maybe it's because I made the mistake of starting it before I knew where it was going. Whatever the case, it will be put on hold until my inspiration for it has returned.  
  
The second, and more important, reason is that I've been planning a book for some time now (nothing to do with StarFox). The planning has reached very intricate levels and takes most of my time. I want to devote all my effort to it.  
  
Thank you to those who have read and given me comments, and I apologize for suddenly cutting it like this. But rest assured it will mean a much better product in the end. 


End file.
